Caffeine's great if you know the path that you're on is the correct one, and you just need to hammer out code and work intensively for hours on end. It's like strapping a rocket booster on - if you're pointed in the right direction, it works great. If you're lost, though, it won't help you at all.
One means of stirring up the creative juices is to walk far away from the computer and pick up a good magazine (like Scientific American) with articles from a wide variety of backgrounds. It can be useful if you're an engineer, for example, to read articles from biologists or astronomers to give your brain a kick in a different direction...
1. The centralized, server-based model only serves to give the music industry a target to shoot at. Gnutella is a much more "stealthy" means of distribution.
2. According to the CNN article, two main points of Napster's defense were "gee, we didn't know there was pirating going on," and "sharing is personal use." Both are bogus arguments that either point to a horrible legal strategy or (more probably) a doomed business model.
Personally, I'd develop a foundation to boost the space program - get private and public partners together and start working on some big jobs, like manned expeditions to Mars and so on.
Of course, that's after I buy an NHL team and move them to Indianapolis.
One could easily spend $1 billion, given the desire and the mindset - and I'm not talking about merely blowing cash out the door, but really doing things on a massive scale (like Howard Hughes and that huge plane, the Spruce Goose, I believe?). Then you've got Richard Branson's ballooning adventures, and of course, there's always the fun of buying your own sports franchise.
It should only require a free registration... sorry not to note that.
The basic idea in the graph I was pointing to was that in comparing the US with the UK, Germany, and Japan, the portion of the consumer gas price that represents tax (about 25-30% in the US) is much smaller than in the other countries (around 60% in Germany & Japan, around 75% in the UK). It's an interesting point to debate, whether this level of tax sufficiently recovers the negative externalities of gasoline use (air/water/noise pollution, roadwork, etc.).
The majority of SUV's I see are driven by a lady, with no passengers, on her way to work or wherever between the city and suburbs of Indianapolis. People love SUV's because of the commanding view of traffic while driving, plain and simple - Americans have always loved big cars, and demand that their politicians keep gas prices low enough to make them more convenient. Just check out the graph in this story and see how US gas taxes compare with other countries.
E-bay's site is (quite obviously) a place of business, or more properly, a service offered on the company's premises (the servers). Any business has the right to refuse service to any particular customer, and in this case, the guy has deservedly brought on that refusal.
Continually reestablishing accounts under false identities is patently bogus, and all E-bay is doing here is loading up the "contempt of court" gun on this guy. If he comes back again, the courts can throw the book at him. What other option does E-bay have???
Descrimination based on sex, race, or other criteria is already covered under the law in various jurisdictions (some cover sexual orientation, others do not). This has nothing to do with this case...
What happens to the legal status of copyright once music is broadcast over the radio? What would prevent someone rigging a radio tuner onto their system as an audio input, and ripping CD's or mp3's from that???
"Internet wiretaps are conducted only under state or federal judicial order, and occur relatively infrequently."
"The FBI defends Carnivore as more precise than Internet wiretap methods used in the past. The bureau says the system allows investigators to tailor an intercept operation so they can pluck only the digital traffic of one person from among the stream of millions of other messages. An earlier version, aptly code-named Omnivore, could suck in as much as to six gigabytes of data every hour, but in a less discriminating fashion."
This sounds like it is indeed meant for targeting specific suspects, after having obtained the legal permission to do so. Is it open to potential abuse? Certainly - but aren't unencrypted internet data transmissions open to snooping anyway? This just sounds like a high-powered info-sifter...
Lloyd's of London has a famous reputation for assessing and insuring all sorts of odd risks, such as Mary (Entertainment Tonight) Hart's legs. Check this out for some examples. Businesses can even insure against a couple employees winning the lottery and not coming back to work...
At least in America, they could have their conversations monitored and lives dissected in front of a national audience, and have a chance at a HUGE CASH PRIZE!!! The only downside is you have to live in a house or on an island full of strangers...
Fertility drugs allow couples with compromised reproductive systems produce healthy children that otherwise would not have been possible. Those couples who kick out whole litters (6, 7, 8) do so out of their own choice - they are aware of the possibility of massively multiple fertilizations, and refuse for their own moral reasons to selectively abort some of the embryos.
My wife and I are going to be using fertility drugs soon, after having experienced the trauma of an ectopic pregnancy a few months ago. We've discussed the possibilities and are not interested in producing a whole hockey team at once (although I wouldn't mind a defense pair or forward line).
As the old saying goes, it isn't the technology itself that is good or evil, it is the practical application thereof that people need to make informed decisions about. I'm thankful as hell that researchers have worked hard over the years (mostly in the face of strident opposition from god-fearing Luddites) to give couples a choice. If you don't think that sort of technology should be available for us to use, then kindly go screw yourself.
even though it's aimed at ten year old kids who think that Jar Jar Binks is actually cool
Gosh, perish the thought that a mainstream film can be made with characters that appeal to the kids in the audience. The horror!
Actually, the story of Darth's fall from grace has lots of dramatic potential. Just because you hold Lucas and his fanatical fans in the utmost contempt doesn't mean he shouldn't make the film. When it comes out, by all means skip it, but please lay of the whining. Lucas is no more a money gouging bastard than most people in Hollywood (or anywhere, for that matter), he's just more successful.
It's not surprising at all that this story is getting legs - after all, the news has been awash in stories of internet zillionairres and transformed industries for years now. It's only fitting that a cautionary tale of reckless avarice leading to ruin gets some run as well. The biggest fools in all of this were the VC bunch, who discarded every common-sense investing rule in their rush to profit from the IPO. Like the article mentioned, even a cursory background check of this guy (which a secretary could have performed in a day) would have sent up red flags.
Say what you like, but AOL and Amazon have been able to consistently deliver something that 99.99% of geeks can't - a user experience that's well tailored to the novice computer owner.
Sure, Amazon's financial structure may be a house of cards, but there's no question that they have been a huge influence on the development of the B2C e-commerce industry.
Your example regarding the software that drives the Internet only serves to bolster the initial poster's point. He said "Free software is good to get things going, but copyright makes it big business."
The free software you referred do did indeed get the internet off the launch pad and into the public consciousness, but it's the Amazon's and AOL's of the world that have taken it to an entirely different level. Greed is a powerful motivator...
Assume a 17% VAT. SuperCorp is a company that makes iron widgets.
SuperCorp buys $100 worth of iron, pays $17 in VAT.
SuperCorp then uses that iron and creates widgets that sell for $200. They collect $34 in VAT from the consumer.
By deducting out the BAT that they paid for the iron purchase, SuperCorp ends up paying $17 in VAT, and the consumer $34. SuperCorp is thus paying 17% on the Value Added to the iron (started out worth $100, ended up worth $200 - they added $100 in value).
Just running Gnutella on a PC and having copyrighted material available wouldn't amount to entrapment. I believe the standard involves coercion or enticement in order to make the suspect commit whatever act you're trying to target. Just like the cops can dress a female officer up and walk her down the avenue, waiting for a John to offer $20 for a quick "date"...
For many IS managers, sticking with the Microsoft brand is an easy, conservative decision (what's the old mantra about nobody ever getting fired for buying IBM?). I know where I work, the IIS-for-ASP argument won out.
But seriously, maybe it is time we really started a grass roots effort to remind the world how proud and unified we felt as a human family when we, as a race, stepped onto the Moon.
It's too bad that nothing much happened after the commendable Tom Hanks film, Apollo 13, unlike Saving Private Ryan which helped get the ball rolling on the WW2 Memorial.
By all means, this is an issue to keep in mind during the coming election campaign. Simply ask the candidates where they stand on NASA funding, and let them paint themselves as either populist tax-cutters or visionary opportunists.
The only combat we have against Spammers, is the capitalist approach. Spammers would not be in business, if not for all of the nullheaded PR people who feel they need to mass-market the internet cheaply. And there is nothing expensive about loading up a bulk email program and sending mail to a half-million people.
You can't really blame those PR people - maximizing your exposure for a minimum of expense is a basic goal of any marketing campaign. Spam is an example of a market failure, wherein otherwise beneficial free-market forces encourage behaviour which causes negative externalities (just like a manufacturing plant has an incentive to dump pollutants cheaply). Sure the spammer gets their message out, and might generate some revenue off that, but everybody else carries the expense of unnecessary traffic, pissed off users, etc.
The question is, how best to deal with this situation. Sure, this guy probably should have "changed the names to protect the (presumed until proven guilty) innocent," but would anybody have believed him in that case?
Slashdot Mirror
One means of stirring up the creative juices is to walk far away from the computer and pick up a good magazine (like Scientific American) with articles from a wide variety of backgrounds. It can be useful if you're an engineer, for example, to read articles from biologists or astronomers to give your brain a kick in a different direction...
2. According to the CNN article, two main points of Napster's defense were "gee, we didn't know there was pirating going on," and "sharing is personal use." Both are bogus arguments that either point to a horrible legal strategy or (more probably) a doomed business model.
Personally, I'd develop a foundation to boost the space program - get private and public partners together and start working on some big jobs, like manned expeditions to Mars and so on.
Of course, that's after I buy an NHL team and move them to Indianapolis.
One could easily spend $1 billion, given the desire and the mindset - and I'm not talking about merely blowing cash out the door, but really doing things on a massive scale (like Howard Hughes and that huge plane, the Spruce Goose, I believe?). Then you've got Richard Branson's ballooning adventures, and of course, there's always the fun of buying your own sports franchise.
The basic idea in the graph I was pointing to was that in comparing the US with the UK, Germany, and Japan, the portion of the consumer gas price that represents tax (about 25-30% in the US) is much smaller than in the other countries (around 60% in Germany & Japan, around 75% in the UK). It's an interesting point to debate, whether this level of tax sufficiently recovers the negative externalities of gasoline use (air/water/noise pollution, roadwork, etc.).
I don't blame them - I just wish they wouldn't piss and moan so much about how much it costs to fill up their tank!
The majority of SUV's I see are driven by a lady, with no passengers, on her way to work or wherever between the city and suburbs of Indianapolis. People love SUV's because of the commanding view of traffic while driving, plain and simple - Americans have always loved big cars, and demand that their politicians keep gas prices low enough to make them more convenient. Just check out the graph in this story and see how US gas taxes compare with other countries.
Continually reestablishing accounts under false identities is patently bogus, and all E-bay is doing here is loading up the "contempt of court" gun on this guy. If he comes back again, the courts can throw the book at him. What other option does E-bay have???
Descrimination based on sex, race, or other criteria is already covered under the law in various jurisdictions (some cover sexual orientation, others do not). This has nothing to do with this case...
Just when thought it was safe to read Slashdot...
Katz!!!
What happens to the legal status of copyright once music is broadcast over the radio? What would prevent someone rigging a radio tuner onto their system as an audio input, and ripping CD's or mp3's from that???
"The FBI defends Carnivore as more precise than Internet wiretap methods used in the past. The bureau says the system allows investigators to tailor an intercept operation so they can pluck only the digital traffic of one person from among the stream of millions of other messages. An earlier version, aptly code-named Omnivore, could suck in as much as to six gigabytes of data every hour, but in a less discriminating fashion."
This sounds like it is indeed meant for targeting specific suspects, after having obtained the legal permission to do so. Is it open to potential abuse? Certainly - but aren't unencrypted internet data transmissions open to snooping anyway? This just sounds like a high-powered info-sifter...
Lloyd's of London has a famous reputation for assessing and insuring all sorts of odd risks, such as Mary (Entertainment Tonight) Hart's legs. Check this out for some examples. Businesses can even insure against a couple employees winning the lottery and not coming back to work...
At least in America, they could have their conversations monitored and lives dissected in front of a national audience, and have a chance at a HUGE CASH PRIZE!!! The only downside is you have to live in a house or on an island full of strangers...
My wife and I are going to be using fertility drugs soon, after having experienced the trauma of an ectopic pregnancy a few months ago. We've discussed the possibilities and are not interested in producing a whole hockey team at once (although I wouldn't mind a defense pair or forward line).
As the old saying goes, it isn't the technology itself that is good or evil, it is the practical application thereof that people need to make informed decisions about. I'm thankful as hell that researchers have worked hard over the years (mostly in the face of strident opposition from god-fearing Luddites) to give couples a choice. If you don't think that sort of technology should be available for us to use, then kindly go screw yourself.
Gosh, perish the thought that a mainstream film can be made with characters that appeal to the kids in the audience. The horror!
Actually, the story of Darth's fall from grace has lots of dramatic potential. Just because you hold Lucas and his fanatical fans in the utmost contempt doesn't mean he shouldn't make the film. When it comes out, by all means skip it, but please lay of the whining. Lucas is no more a money gouging bastard than most people in Hollywood (or anywhere, for that matter), he's just more successful.
It's not surprising at all that this story is getting legs - after all, the news has been awash in stories of internet zillionairres and transformed industries for years now. It's only fitting that a cautionary tale of reckless avarice leading to ruin gets some run as well. The biggest fools in all of this were the VC bunch, who discarded every common-sense investing rule in their rush to profit from the IPO. Like the article mentioned, even a cursory background check of this guy (which a secretary could have performed in a day) would have sent up red flags.
Sure, Amazon's financial structure may be a house of cards, but there's no question that they have been a huge influence on the development of the B2C e-commerce industry.
The free software you referred do did indeed get the internet off the launch pad and into the public consciousness, but it's the Amazon's and AOL's of the world that have taken it to an entirely different level. Greed is a powerful motivator...
SuperCorp buys $100 worth of iron, pays $17 in VAT.
SuperCorp then uses that iron and creates widgets that sell for $200. They collect $34 in VAT from the consumer.
By deducting out the BAT that they paid for the iron purchase, SuperCorp ends up paying $17 in VAT, and the consumer $34. SuperCorp is thus paying 17% on the Value Added to the iron (started out worth $100, ended up worth $200 - they added $100 in value).
So yes, VAT is a cascading tax.
If your search is done anonymously, and cannot be traced back to you, than how do you expect to receive results???
Just running Gnutella on a PC and having copyrighted material available wouldn't amount to entrapment. I believe the standard involves coercion or enticement in order to make the suspect commit whatever act you're trying to target. Just like the cops can dress a female officer up and walk her down the avenue, waiting for a John to offer $20 for a quick "date"...
For many IS managers, sticking with the Microsoft brand is an easy, conservative decision (what's the old mantra about nobody ever getting fired for buying IBM?). I know where I work, the IIS-for-ASP argument won out.
It's too bad that nothing much happened after the commendable Tom Hanks film, Apollo 13 , unlike Saving Private Ryan which helped get the ball rolling on the WW2 Memorial.
By all means, this is an issue to keep in mind during the coming election campaign. Simply ask the candidates where they stand on NASA funding, and let them paint themselves as either populist tax-cutters or visionary opportunists.
You can't really blame those PR people - maximizing your exposure for a minimum of expense is a basic goal of any marketing campaign. Spam is an example of a market failure, wherein otherwise beneficial free-market forces encourage behaviour which causes negative externalities (just like a manufacturing plant has an incentive to dump pollutants cheaply). Sure the spammer gets their message out, and might generate some revenue off that, but everybody else carries the expense of unnecessary traffic, pissed off users, etc.
The question is, how best to deal with this situation. Sure, this guy probably should have "changed the names to protect the (presumed until proven guilty) innocent," but would anybody have believed him in that case?
This is amazing. I'm opposed to capital punishment on general principle, but in this case I'd make an exception!