Some expect the name Windows will be dropped completely. The antitrust agreement with the Bush DoJ specifically states "Microsoft Windows" throughout. By maintaining incompatibility (already planned due to design considerations), making it look different and calling it something else, Microsoft can free itself from antitrust oversight. "It's not Windows, it's a different product - the agreement doesn't apply."
Trying this kind of stunt would just launch another anti-trust action from Square One, which I highly doubt Microsoft would want. One of the main reasons that Microsoft is floating the idea of paying a dividend is that they've put the specter of antitrust liability behind them.
Gotta love Swingligh - I work for the US arm of a Swedish company, and some of the memos that come down are hilarious. But damn, they never send us meatballs!
I, for one, cannot wait - I haven't bought a PC game in a few years, but this is a guaranteed first-day purchase in my book. My brothers and I used to play a great War of the Ring boardgame long ago (mid-80s, can't remember the name). I always enjoyed running Saruman's forces out of Orthanc, who for my money is the real wildcard in the war.
Hello, the terrorists declared war on the U.S. a long time ago. There has never been a better time for LotR to rise into popular culture - it reminds us that there are indeed things worth fighting for.
In the past, they'd have to break down the building into very very tiny pieces in order to fit over the phone lines, where it would travel "bit by bit" (that's a computer term) and be reassembled someplace else, like a travelling road show. But now, with the onset of Broadband Internet, the pieces that can be sent through the net are much bigger, so it takes less time to break the building down and reassemble it on the other side. The magical world of technology has made this and many other wondrous things possible! Support your local scientists!
You've really got two levels to worry about, the general user who forwards something stupidly, and the determined individual who will go to any lengths (which obviously you can't stop). That said, I think Lotus Notes has an option for stopping the former, which is a good start. You can tag an email such that the recipient can't copy it (of course they have to be another Lotus Notes user, but within the workplace that's OK). You can't print it, copy the text, capture a screen shot, etc. (at least not easily). Is it foolproof? Of course not, but it goes far enough to discourage all but the most motivated of users...
Is there actually any valuable use for the software built into these cartridges, other than the fact that it allows Lexmark to invoke DMCA against anybody who tries to sell a compatible cartridge? I'm thinking that's a serious loophole in the law if that's the case - the fact that you lock down just about anything from reverse engineering, as long as you use some form of software-based protection on it. Not that it's a very good law to begin with...
And who's to decide the difference between a living and a luxury? And for whom, between the researchers, the assistants, the support staff, the investors who provided the means to undertake the endeavor, etc.? That's what we have a market for, so society as a whole can make those judgements through everyday transactions. The incredible pace of medical research these days is, in large part, a function of the neverending demand (expressed through a willingness to pay just about any price for better and newer medicines) that provides financial incentives for continued investment. Plain and simple - they're meeting a demand, and are getting rewarded for it. Good for them!
A number of congressmen were overtly hostile on this point, including Representative Billy Tauzin, the Louisiana Republican who is the chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Mr. Tauzin was critical of the regulatory role of the states. He argued that the ruling would result in 51 local procedures with 51 lawsuits and 12 different appeals courts, "ending up at the Supreme Court that ordered the deregulation in the first place."
But in a letter sent to Mr. Powell in June 2002, Mr. Tauzin himself wrote: "The commission must evaluate the rationale for requiring the unbundling of a network element based upon specific geographic and class-of-customer characteristics of individual markets across the nation. Uniform, national rules do not accurately reflect the state of competition and the unique economic characteristics of individual markets."
Gotta love the flip-flop action from Tauzin. It's not just the lawyers who'll get rich from these protracted legal battles - by tying this process up in Washington for years on end, the incumbents assure themselves lots of attention (and donations) from the parties on both sides of the issue. I have a feeling that we'll be hearing about this issue for only, say, another decade or so at this rate!
Patents are also widely used as a means of rewarding an inventor by giving them an avenue to license their technology to one or many users who can then implement it into commercial products. In that way you don't get a monopoly, nor does the inventor have to provide the capital required to bring something to market. You only get a monopoly if the patent holder refuses to sell licenses, or sells it to a single user.
Think fuel injectors, for example, which are made by several suppliers, but have a patent holder who gets license revenue.
IANAL, but whether something violates federal or state law isn't an indicator of the severity of the offense, but rather the body of government that has jurisdiction. Copyright is something that is more in the area of interstate commerce, thus it is more easily managed at the federal level, as opposed to labor standards or gun control, which is more local in nature.
People do tend to copy generic formulas (verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus), which works for the majority of top-40 pop. Is there any real difference, for example, between 98 Degrees, Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, etc? I didn't think so. But there is room for some fresh air on occasion, even if that freshness is really something older that's being rehashed (the "punk" revival of the last couple years, for example). The difference is in which patterns are being copied - today's versus yesterdays.
Of course, the DEA or anybody else in government doesn't care about criticizms of hypocrisy - the easy response is that the critic is either a dope fiend or a radical teetotaler who wants to trample on the rights of Joe Six Pack, Average American. It's really a shame, because the war on drugs, while successful in some statistical senses, has basically criminalized an entire generation of young minority men. Here's a highly acclaimed appraisal of our drug policy, which tries to draw some objective comparisons to other countries and other times.
I'm sure terrorists somewhere have an apache webserver running, it's not like the "developers helped them become terrorists by giving them a tool to create a membership database."
Wow, I didn't know they ran webservers from those Apache attack helicopters!
What's really needed for patent reform is the ability to penalize companies and individuals who file overly broad and bogus patents such as this. Right now, there's no reason for Amazon (or other large corporations) not to do this, and bully license fees from anybody they think would rather pay a fee than fight them in court. The burden of proof is currently on the wrong side here.
Re:NetHack is cool because you can play it at work
on
Nethack 3.4.1 Released
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· Score: 1
And even better, there's now a Windows CE port. I think a bathroom break is coming on...
Have you even seen the game? To ask for these things is to ask for Nethack to become like everything else out there, which it most definitely is not, thank goodness.
Re:NetHack is cool because you can play it at work
on
Nethack 3.4.1 Released
·
· Score: 1
And best of all, no network traffic to arouse suspicion. This is a VERY happy day!
For a good picture of how this would apply to the business world, check out this article from Business 2.0 about agent-based supply chain solutions. Pretty interesting stuff if you've got a large, sophisticated network to manage.
Re:That's not really the problem.
on
NYT on RFID Tags
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· Score: 1
Just remember to keep them clean in case you get in an accident...
Where at least the paramedics will be able to detect the RFID chip implanted in your head and read your medical file!
There is much more to this patent than just versioning, if you even take a cursory look at it. Perhaps we should able to mod articles themselves as trolls!
Actually, come to think of it, modding the article itself could yield some interesting info...
Slashdot Mirror
Trying this kind of stunt would just launch another anti-trust action from Square One, which I highly doubt Microsoft would want. One of the main reasons that Microsoft is floating the idea of paying a dividend is that they've put the specter of antitrust liability behind them.
that's what I get for not previewing - I meant "Swinglish".
Gotta love Swingligh - I work for the US arm of a Swedish company, and some of the memos that come down are hilarious. But damn, they never send us meatballs!
Wow, what a remarkably unbiased review of the OS - you wouldn't happen to be a Linux user, would you?
I, for one, cannot wait - I haven't bought a PC game in a few years, but this is a guaranteed first-day purchase in my book. My brothers and I used to play a great War of the Ring boardgame long ago (mid-80s, can't remember the name). I always enjoyed running Saruman's forces out of Orthanc, who for my money is the real wildcard in the war.
Hello, the terrorists declared war on the U.S. a long time ago. There has never been a better time for LotR to rise into popular culture - it reminds us that there are indeed things worth fighting for.
In the past, they'd have to break down the building into very very tiny pieces in order to fit over the phone lines, where it would travel "bit by bit" (that's a computer term) and be reassembled someplace else, like a travelling road show. But now, with the onset of Broadband Internet, the pieces that can be sent through the net are much bigger, so it takes less time to break the building down and reassemble it on the other side. The magical world of technology has made this and many other wondrous things possible! Support your local scientists!
You've really got two levels to worry about, the general user who forwards something stupidly, and the determined individual who will go to any lengths (which obviously you can't stop). That said, I think Lotus Notes has an option for stopping the former, which is a good start. You can tag an email such that the recipient can't copy it (of course they have to be another Lotus Notes user, but within the workplace that's OK). You can't print it, copy the text, capture a screen shot, etc. (at least not easily). Is it foolproof? Of course not, but it goes far enough to discourage all but the most motivated of users...
Is there actually any valuable use for the software built into these cartridges, other than the fact that it allows Lexmark to invoke DMCA against anybody who tries to sell a compatible cartridge? I'm thinking that's a serious loophole in the law if that's the case - the fact that you lock down just about anything from reverse engineering, as long as you use some form of software-based protection on it. Not that it's a very good law to begin with...
And who's to decide the difference between a living and a luxury? And for whom, between the researchers, the assistants, the support staff, the investors who provided the means to undertake the endeavor, etc.? That's what we have a market for, so society as a whole can make those judgements through everyday transactions. The incredible pace of medical research these days is, in large part, a function of the neverending demand (expressed through a willingness to pay just about any price for better and newer medicines) that provides financial incentives for continued investment. Plain and simple - they're meeting a demand, and are getting rewarded for it. Good for them!
Gotta love the flip-flop action from Tauzin. It's not just the lawyers who'll get rich from these protracted legal battles - by tying this process up in Washington for years on end, the incumbents assure themselves lots of attention (and donations) from the parties on both sides of the issue. I have a feeling that we'll be hearing about this issue for only, say, another decade or so at this rate!
Think fuel injectors, for example, which are made by several suppliers, but have a patent holder who gets license revenue.
IANAL, but whether something violates federal or state law isn't an indicator of the severity of the offense, but rather the body of government that has jurisdiction. Copyright is something that is more in the area of interstate commerce, thus it is more easily managed at the federal level, as opposed to labor standards or gun control, which is more local in nature.
People do tend to copy generic formulas (verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus), which works for the majority of top-40 pop. Is there any real difference, for example, between 98 Degrees, Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, etc? I didn't think so.
But there is room for some fresh air on occasion, even if that freshness is really something older that's being rehashed (the "punk" revival of the last couple years, for example). The difference is in which patterns are being copied - today's versus yesterdays.
Of course, the DEA or anybody else in government doesn't care about criticizms of hypocrisy - the easy response is that the critic is either a dope fiend or a radical teetotaler who wants to trample on the rights of Joe Six Pack, Average American. It's really a shame, because the war on drugs, while successful in some statistical senses, has basically criminalized an entire generation of young minority men. Here's a highly acclaimed appraisal of our drug policy, which tries to draw some objective comparisons to other countries and other times.
Wow, I didn't know they ran webservers from those Apache attack helicopters!
AOL SUIT #1: That's brilliant! I hereby promote you to CIO...
What's really needed for patent reform is the ability to penalize companies and individuals who file overly broad and bogus patents such as this. Right now, there's no reason for Amazon (or other large corporations) not to do this, and bully license fees from anybody they think would rather pay a fee than fight them in court. The burden of proof is currently on the wrong side here.
And even better, there's now a Windows CE port. I think a bathroom break is coming on...
Have you even seen the game? To ask for these things is to ask for Nethack to become like everything else out there, which it most definitely is not, thank goodness.
And best of all, no network traffic to arouse suspicion. This is a VERY happy day!
Then again, perhaps that makes too much sense!
For a good picture of how this would apply to the business world, check out this article from Business 2.0 about agent-based supply chain solutions. Pretty interesting stuff if you've got a large, sophisticated network to manage.
Where at least the paramedics will be able to detect the RFID chip implanted in your head and read your medical file!
Actually, come to think of it, modding the article itself could yield some interesting info...