This myth keeps getting propagated by trademark holders, but it is not correct. You have to protect your trademark to prevent others from using it to sell or represent the same kind of goods and services as their own. But this was obviously not the case here. Nobody with a brain cell thought that the protestors were trying to pass off what they were doing as an alternative "Olympics", or suggest that they were the only IOC-authorised brand of anti-Chinese protest.
Quite honestly, the IOC brand has been so diluted since 1936 by its association with nasty dictatorships, corruption and junk food that the inhabitants of Mt. Olympus should call and ask for their good name back.
My guess is that Greek Gods don't just call and ask for something. They just strike somebody down instead.
You are correct, in so far as the tools needed would not technically be legal. That said, in the event that Steam goes under it seems unlikely that Valve will be enforcing this. They would almost certainly have much larger concerns.
The exception would be if Valve provided a working alternative to the use of such tools. A steam version that does not contact the steam servers, but does check password and game authenication against a local database would be sufficient. A patch for the servers such that applying a crack to them is not needed would also probably be needed. It is plausible that valve would release such updates if they decided to shut down the Steam Service.
You can most certainly play the game without the latest patches. However, multiplayer games may require that all clients be at the same patch level, and servers generally mandate the latest patches. (More to the point, my understanding is the clients must be at the same patch level as the server in most games).
However, it is required to tell steam explicitly not to automaticaly update the game, or it will start the process on its own, and once the patching has started, the game cannot be played until it has completed, and there is no supported (or even known unsupported) mechanism for rolling back to previous versions.
The reason why people like Steam is that despite the fact that steam has DRM features, those features largely stay out of the way of a legitimate end user.
(This post will be a long list of positive steam attributes, followed by some of its problems).
First of all, note that steam lets you download the game at any time, and there is no maximum number of times one can do this. Many other electronic game delivery systems have a limited time window for re-downloads.
Any steam member can log into his opr her account on any computer with steam, and may download any or all of his games on that computer to play. There is no limit to the number of computers one can download the game on.
Unless you specifically tell steam otherwise, it will keep all your games up to date, so you never have to check the game maker's site for patches.
Obviously, Steam does not require a CD to be inserted to play the game.
When buying the Steam games online no CD keys must be entered by the user.
Steam does have a few flaws:
First of all retail cd-keys can only be used to activate a steam license for Valve games and a few (far from all) third party games.
If you bought a Valve game retail and somebody had already guessed the CD key, the process of proving that you are the legitimate owner is a royal pain. This can be avoided if buying the game online is a viable option for you. (Obviously that is not a viable option for many dial-up users).
Before a game can be played offline after it is downloaded or updated, the user account must be authenticated. This is done by simply starting the game at least once once while in online mode.
Games cannot be transferred or sold. This is the only part of the Steam DRM system that any legitimate user is likely to see. This is arguably Steams largest disadvantage.
As for the event that Steam goes under, if the files for the game are fully downloaded when this happens ("100% - Ready" is what steam would say) then the existing Steam Cracking tools could be used with minimal effort (the tools act almost exactly like Steam, except that they do not check that a user is authorized before launching a Game, as long as the game is already installed). In the event that Steams goes under, these tools will become widely available. They install easily enough and just work. The only issues of note would be that servers would needed to be cracked (and if steam goes under, all remaining servers would have the cracks applies), new updates obviously would not be download-able via Steam, and one would lose the ability to download and install new copies of the game on new machines without resorting to piracy measures.
So overall Steam is not bad. It works well, and what little DRM it has is specially designed to minimize the possibly of it causing any problems for legitimate customers. (Unless those customers wish to sell or transfer a game.)
Future features are planned, including Steam's servers holding a copy of your saved games, so you can continue a game you started on one computer on another. (This feature requires the game to support it. Valve's games will be updated, (possibly even the old GoldSource games) and third party games using the Steamwerks API can add this feature if the developer desires.)
The line sync frequency for TV is (based on a quick google search) something around 15625 Hz or 15750 Hz.
The nominal maximum frequency is 20 kHz. The graphic in http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/12/technology/12ring.html indicates that people 18-24 generally have a cutoff of around 16 kHz, 30-29 at around 14 kHz, 40-49 at around 12 kHz.
(I may be 1 kHz off there, as it is hard to determine how the graphic is actually scaled).
It is definitely plausible that some phones emit a nasty high pitch frequency, but I doubt this is very consistent between phones. However, the people who believe they can tell if a cell phone is nearby may have experience with one or two cell phones that do emit such a frequency.
The simple fact is that Miyamoto is unfireable. Iwata is more fireable than Miyamoto. I would argue that the only reason Miyamoto is not President of Nintendo is that Nintendo (an Miyamoto himself) would rather he not waste his time on administrative things when he could be spending that time on game and system design.
First of all, though unless the fire fighters are considered peace officers in MA, they would not be able to confiscate the property, and most likely would not be able to call the police in either. However, if the law allows police to enter without a warrant to investigate the fire, then that is not a problem.
Of course, only the chemicals "in plain sight" could be confiscated under that justification. Those in a closed cabinet would still need a warrant.
The crime scene justification might allow the police to look beyond plain sight without a warrant. I'm not sure of the specifics on how Crime Scene Investigation intersects with warrants.
Generally only proprietary software has trouble of this kind, and these days even they usually work well on all the major distributions. Of course, distro specific software may also somewhat fall into this category, as in some cases they depend on the very infrastructure of the project. But even those tools are often ported.
It is completely possible for the MITM to just forward all packets including encrypted packets on to the intended site. The MITM would only stop the packets and pretend to be just that site. The MITM concern is really more about the this thrid party having a site that looks exactly like your bank's website, that asks for your password, and then returns an error indicating that the site is down for maintenance.
Monitoring *all* SSL connections is not generally the goal.
Honestly, yes. Colleges are not really about teaching per se. Getting a degree indicates that you have been tested for knowledge of certain material, and that you otherwise pass the classes (indicating you completed most graded homework, and followed other requirements).
Of note, colleges make sure you are aware of materials they find necessary. (I found some courses to be surprisingly more relevant that I would have thought. On my own I probably never would have bothered learning that material, but knowing it helps.) They also (ideally) have you gain experience using some of the things taught beyond just following the the book and doing the exercises. The only other real benefit is having some field experts (which ideally all profs should be) around to answer questions.
Um... how does the java code from the jar end up getting executed anyway? Surely when embedded within an IMG tag the browser will determine that the file is a GIF, and use its own tools. I would find it hard to believe that a browser would ever load the java runtime to display something in an IMG tag. If the browser does do that, that sounds like a major browser flaw.
The DNS host is giving the current error. This apparently happens during the last day or so of every month or two months. This is a result of exceeding their bandwidth limits. They will be back.
Indeed. The R4 was for quite a while the generally considered the best Slot-1 flashcard around. It was among the first cards to have near-perfect game compatibility, and it was low cost.
However, when the CycloEvo came out it replaced R4 as the slot-1 Flashcard of choice. When it first came out, it had the game support of the R4, but also had perfect Download Play (A.K.A. 1 cart multiplayer) compatibility. It also had support for SDHC microsd cards, which was a market first.
Both the R4 and CycloEvo support cheats. But the CycloEvo has an in-game menu feature to allow one to toggle cheats on and off, "Soft reset" (reset back to menu without cycling the DS power), and most recently, the ability To save or load a single emulator-like save-state. (Obviously it is slower than an Emulator's save-state, making it slightly less useful, but it still has uses).
The CycloEvo also has some of the best support of any flash card makers. They actually listen to people in their forums, reply to them, and have implemented multiple features by user request. They have also been known to ship replacements for defective units to the purchaser along with a cash refund for the shipping costs of returning the defective one. It does not yet have ingame guide support (unless a new firmware release has been made while I was not looking), but it is programed and slated for release in the next firmware update.
Now, the CycloEvo is probably still the Flashcard of choice, but it does have some serious competition, and may not remain that way for long.
Oh, I should mention that while this sounds like an advertisement for the CycloEvo, I'm not related to them in any way, and do not own that card. I in fact do not any DS flash cards (or GBA flash carts for that matter). However, I've been considering purchasing a FlashCart for a long time, and the CycloEvo is currently the one I plan to get.
While there may be 4,000 independent ISPs, there are probably at best 200 ISPs offering broadband to the home. Generally, only the people who have wires going to a person's home (or those allowed by the wire owners to use said wire) can offer broadband to the home.
But here's the thing. In virtually all populated areas, by law, only one Telco can own "last mile" wires in a given area. The whole idea is tor prevent having 20+ different companies telephone wires going all through Main St.
The Cable situation is a bit better, as many places will allow more than one cable company to own "last mile" lines. Although truth be told, except in larger cities there is often still only 1 available Cable Company.
Considering that the cable companies and phone companies are hardly putting much effort into competing with each other, the end effect is that we don't have a free market in broadband for the home.
I will agree that there is a free market in the dial-up ISP area, which is a good thing.
At my school, for my EE, science and math courses, the books are there solely for the mandatory (graded) homework exercises. The Profs would always cover all the material in lecture, so reading the book was not necessary.
The book was useful in the event that you missed a lecture, or forgot something, and perhaps for review, but nobody actually expected you to read through the chapters. If you did, the lectures would be pointless, except for hints about what will be on the exams, and any in-class quiz's or exams.
Thus I have had several courses taught using what even the professors were forced to agree was likely the wost text in the market for the given subject. But the Profs did not care, as the books were really only about the exercises.
But cant they do simple volume equalization rather than compression? I mean equalizing by either maximum volume (the loudest sounds in all videos are exactly the same) or by the average volume (the avaerage volume level of all clips are exactly the same).
Indeed, I believe they already do use one of those equalizations. So why compress the sounds?
Are you talking about the Packard Bell Navigator software? It was a piece of shit much like Bob, and presented a "house" with rooms, organizing your software according to room or some such nonsense. IIRC the keyboard on my Pack of Hell even had a key specially marked for launching the software.
But I'm pretty sure Bob was not a true ripoff of Navigator, as they both came out the same year. I suspect they were really just simultaneously developed, and modified to add interesting fewatures they heard were going to be in the other.
My larger concern is are they doing it correctly? Are they adding this functionality by creating policy compliant debs and installing them? If not they are actually hurting Ubuntu by making it harder for the Ubuntu support systems to function.
Debian (and thus its derivatives) has historically had one of the nicest package management systems (although these days emerge and yum have made the difference much much smaller than it once was). However the cost of that is that the system requires that packages conform to a relatively strict set of policies, and that hand installed software be installed into/usr/local instead of/usr.
Debs not conforming to those policies, or manual installation of software to/usr can potentially wreck havoc on the system. even if it does not, any problems resulting from them can be far more difficult to diagnose.
US federal laws overule state laws. But a state can issue a contradictory law, no problem there. Normally it would have no real impact, but there are exceptions. If the federal law is removed it its entirety, such as a ruling of unconstitutionality or repeal, then the state law would start to truly apply.
The states do have additional autonomy, and that is where this comes into play. The states have full control over the local law enforcement, and can prohibit enforcement of certain federal laws. Thus only a federal officer could enforce those laws. There are very few federal officers, and they only focus on the biggest crimes.
Now as for traffc law, there are surprisingly few differences. The full-faith and credit clause has been interpreted to require states to recognize driver's licenses and vehicle registrations issued by another state, even if the license or registration would not have been issued in that state to the same person or vehicle.
The base traffic laws are identical. Slight variations exist in speed limits, but they are posted. People are supposed to know the default speed limits in the event that they are not posted, but few courts would even consider trying to enforce unposted limits on out-of-state drivers except in the case that the speed of said driver exceeded any reasonable limit. (think 100 kph in a residential neighborhood).
There are minor other differences. The maximum Blood alcohol content limits once differed, but no longer do. Most states have a ban on open alcoholic beverages in a vehicle, regardless of the state of the driver or who (if anybody) is drinking the beverage. Only a few states lack that law, and residents are aware that their state is an exception, and that they should not have open containers of alcohol in their vehicle while out of state.
There are extremely few other noticeable differences, and virtual all states mandate traffic control devices (markings, signs, traffic lights, etc) conform to the federal standard.
If a state has any other generally rel event traffic laws that differ significantly from other states, they will usually post large signs along the highways just inside the state borders warning drivers.
Yes. It has always been possible to have a free non-premium account, but for the past few years it has been almost impossible to find the sign up form for that.
One can get free premium account access by racking up enough points, but the non-premium accounts have always been free. But they have been trying really hard to make it look like only premium accounts exist.
Hmm... interesting. I've been using http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/winmobileppc/ which is based on 8.6, but was significantly better than any other web browser on WM5 at the time. It sounds like I should be looking at upgrading.
Opera mobile does exist for WM5. I use it. It is far better than the other browsers, but does have a few small missing features. IIRC, there is no find on page feature for example. For the free trial see http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/winmobileppc/
Actually it depends. Sometimes they are just a patching application that does not contain any of the original executable, but just a checksum of executable (so the patches are not applied to a different version where they may not work) and a list of offsets and replacement bytes.
But when they distribute a pre-patched executable, that is definitely a derivative work. The pre-patched system is common these days since many modern CD copy-protection systems use a wrapped-executable model.
The IFR is not actually a proliferation risk. The Wiki notes that it is easier to enrich natural uranium than to create weapons-grade material from the fuel. And the waste has no actinides at all, making it worthless for nuclear weapons. The only reason it was killed was because keeping it around would give the appearance of not doing enough to prevent proliferation, rather than it being a real risk. In other words, it was killed for political reasons, not technical.
Slashdot Mirror
This myth keeps getting propagated by trademark holders, but it is not correct. You have to protect your trademark to prevent others from using it to sell or represent the same kind of goods and services as their own. But this was obviously not the case here. Nobody with a brain cell thought that the protestors were trying to pass off what they were doing as an alternative "Olympics", or suggest that they were the only IOC-authorised brand of anti-Chinese protest.
Quite honestly, the IOC brand has been so diluted since 1936 by its association with nasty dictatorships, corruption and junk food that the inhabitants of Mt. Olympus should call and ask for their good name back.
My guess is that Greek Gods don't just call and ask for something. They just strike somebody down instead.
You are correct, in so far as the tools needed would not technically be legal. That said, in the event that Steam goes under it seems unlikely that Valve will be enforcing this. They would almost certainly have much larger concerns.
The exception would be if Valve provided a working alternative to the use of such tools. A steam version that does not contact the steam servers, but does check password and game authenication against a local database would be sufficient. A patch for the servers such that applying a crack to them is not needed would also probably be needed. It is plausible that valve would release such updates if they decided to shut down the Steam Service.
You can most certainly play the game without the latest patches. However, multiplayer games may require that all clients be at the same patch level, and servers generally mandate the latest patches. (More to the point, my understanding is the clients must be at the same patch level as the server in most games).
However, it is required to tell steam explicitly not to automaticaly update the game, or it will start the process on its own, and once the patching has started, the game cannot be played until it has completed, and there is no supported (or even known unsupported) mechanism for rolling back to previous versions.
The reason why people like Steam is that despite the fact that steam has DRM features, those features largely stay out of the way of a legitimate end user.
(This post will be a long list of positive steam attributes, followed by some of its problems).
First of all, note that steam lets you download the game at any time, and there is no maximum number of times one can do this. Many other electronic game delivery systems have a limited time window for re-downloads.
Any steam member can log into his opr her account on any computer with steam, and may download any or all of his games on that computer to play. There is no limit to the number of computers one can download the game on.
Unless you specifically tell steam otherwise, it will keep all your games up to date, so you never have to check the game maker's site for patches.
Obviously, Steam does not require a CD to be inserted to play the game.
When buying the Steam games online no CD keys must be entered by the user.
Steam does have a few flaws:
First of all retail cd-keys can only be used to activate a steam license for Valve games and a few (far from all) third party games.
If you bought a Valve game retail and somebody had already guessed the CD key, the process of proving that you are the legitimate owner is a royal pain. This can be avoided if buying the game online is a viable option for you. (Obviously that is not a viable option for many dial-up users).
Before a game can be played offline after it is downloaded or updated, the user account must be authenticated. This is done by simply starting the game at least once once while in online mode.
Games cannot be transferred or sold. This is the only part of the Steam DRM system that any legitimate user is likely to see. This is arguably Steams largest disadvantage.
As for the event that Steam goes under, if the files for the game are fully downloaded when this happens ("100% - Ready" is what steam would say) then the existing Steam Cracking tools could be used with minimal effort (the tools act almost exactly like Steam, except that they do not check that a user is authorized before launching a Game, as long as the game is already installed). In the event that Steams goes under, these tools will become widely available. They install easily enough and just work. The only issues of note would be that servers would needed to be cracked (and if steam goes under, all remaining servers would have the cracks applies), new updates obviously would not be download-able via Steam, and one would lose the ability to download and install new copies of the game on new machines without resorting to piracy measures.
So overall Steam is not bad. It works well, and what little DRM it has is specially designed to minimize the possibly of it causing any problems for legitimate customers. (Unless those customers wish to sell or transfer a game.)
Future features are planned, including Steam's servers holding a copy of your saved games, so you can continue a game you started on one computer on another. (This feature requires the game to support it. Valve's games will be updated, (possibly even the old GoldSource games) and third party games using the Steamwerks API can add this feature if the developer desires.)
The line sync frequency for TV is (based on a quick google search) something around 15625 Hz or 15750 Hz.
The nominal maximum frequency is 20 kHz. The graphic in http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/12/technology/12ring.html indicates that people 18-24 generally have a cutoff of around 16 kHz, 30-29 at around 14 kHz, 40-49 at around 12 kHz.
(I may be 1 kHz off there, as it is hard to determine how the graphic is actually scaled).
It is definitely plausible that some phones emit a nasty high pitch frequency, but I doubt this is very consistent between phones. However, the people who believe they can tell if a cell phone is nearby may have experience with one or two cell phones that do emit such a frequency.
The simple fact is that Miyamoto is unfireable. Iwata is more fireable than Miyamoto. I would argue that the only reason Miyamoto is not President of Nintendo is that Nintendo (an Miyamoto himself) would rather he not waste his time on administrative things when he could be spending that time on game and system design.
First of all, though unless the fire fighters are considered peace officers in MA, they would not be able to confiscate the property, and most likely would not be able to call the police in either. However, if the law allows police to enter without a warrant to investigate the fire, then that is not a problem.
Of course, only the chemicals "in plain sight" could be confiscated under that justification. Those in a closed cabinet would still need a warrant.
The crime scene justification might allow the police to look beyond plain sight without a warrant. I'm not sure of the specifics on how Crime Scene Investigation intersects with warrants.
Generally only proprietary software has trouble of this kind, and these days even they usually work well on all the major distributions. Of course, distro specific software may also somewhat fall into this category, as in some cases they depend on the very infrastructure of the project. But even those tools are often ported.
MITM attacks need not impact more than one site.
It is completely possible for the MITM to just forward all packets including encrypted packets on to the intended site. The MITM would only stop the packets and pretend to be just that site. The MITM concern is really more about the this thrid party having a site that looks exactly like your bank's website, that asks for your password, and then returns an error indicating that the site is down for maintenance.
Monitoring *all* SSL connections is not generally the goal.
Honestly, yes. Colleges are not really about teaching per se. Getting a degree indicates that you have been tested for knowledge of certain material, and that you otherwise pass the classes (indicating you completed most graded homework, and followed other requirements).
Of note, colleges make sure you are aware of materials they find necessary. (I found some courses to be surprisingly more relevant that I would have thought. On my own I probably never would have bothered learning that material, but knowing it helps.) They also (ideally) have you gain experience using some of the things taught beyond just following the the book and doing the exercises. The only other real benefit is having some field experts (which ideally all profs should be) around to answer questions.
Um... how does the java code from the jar end up getting executed anyway? Surely when embedded within an IMG tag the browser will determine that the file is a GIF, and use its own tools. I would find it hard to believe that a browser would ever load the java runtime to display something in an IMG tag. If the browser does do that, that sounds like a major browser flaw.
Ok, they did already release the in0game guide feature in a beta release while I was not looking.
The DNS host is giving the current error. This apparently happens during the last day or so of every month or two months. This is a result of exceeding their bandwidth limits. They will be back.
Indeed. The R4 was for quite a while the generally considered the best Slot-1 flashcard around. It was among the first cards to have near-perfect game compatibility, and it was low cost.
However, when the CycloEvo came out it replaced R4 as the slot-1 Flashcard of choice. When it first came out, it had the game support of the R4, but also had perfect Download Play (A.K.A. 1 cart multiplayer) compatibility. It also had support for SDHC microsd cards, which was a market first.
Both the R4 and CycloEvo support cheats. But the CycloEvo has an in-game menu feature to allow one to toggle cheats on and off, "Soft reset" (reset back to menu without cycling the DS power), and most recently, the ability To save or load a single emulator-like save-state. (Obviously it is slower than an Emulator's save-state, making it slightly less useful, but it still has uses).
The CycloEvo also has some of the best support of any flash card makers. They actually listen to people in their forums, reply to them, and have implemented multiple features by user request. They have also been known to ship replacements for defective units to the purchaser along with a cash refund for the shipping costs of returning the defective one. It does not yet have ingame guide support (unless a new firmware release has been made while I was not looking), but it is programed and slated for release in the next firmware update.
Now, the CycloEvo is probably still the Flashcard of choice, but it does have some serious competition, and may not remain that way for long.
Oh, I should mention that while this sounds like an advertisement for the CycloEvo, I'm not related to them in any way, and do not own that card. I in fact do not any DS flash cards (or GBA flash carts for that matter). However, I've been considering purchasing a FlashCart for a long time, and the CycloEvo is currently the one I plan to get.
While there may be 4,000 independent ISPs, there are probably at best 200 ISPs offering broadband to the home. Generally, only the people who have wires going to a person's home (or those allowed by the wire owners to use said wire) can offer broadband to the home.
But here's the thing. In virtually all populated areas, by law, only one Telco can own "last mile" wires in a given area. The whole idea is tor prevent having 20+ different companies telephone wires going all through Main St.
The Cable situation is a bit better, as many places will allow more than one cable company to own "last mile" lines. Although truth be told, except in larger cities there is often still only 1 available Cable Company.
Considering that the cable companies and phone companies are hardly putting much effort into competing with each other, the end effect is that we don't have a free market in broadband for the home.
I will agree that there is a free market in the dial-up ISP area, which is a good thing.
At my school, for my EE, science and math courses, the books are there solely for the mandatory (graded) homework exercises. The Profs would always cover all the material in lecture, so reading the book was not necessary.
The book was useful in the event that you missed a lecture, or forgot something, and perhaps for review, but nobody actually expected you to read through the chapters. If you did, the lectures would be pointless, except for hints about what will be on the exams, and any in-class quiz's or exams.
Thus I have had several courses taught using what even the professors were forced to agree was likely the wost text in the market for the given subject. But the Profs did not care, as the books were really only about the exercises.
But cant they do simple volume equalization rather than compression? I mean equalizing by either maximum volume (the loudest sounds in all videos are exactly the same) or by the average volume (the avaerage volume level of all clips are exactly the same).
Indeed, I believe they already do use one of those equalizations. So why compress the sounds?
Are you talking about the Packard Bell Navigator software? It was a piece of shit much like Bob, and presented a "house" with rooms, organizing your software according to room or some such nonsense. IIRC the keyboard on my Pack of Hell even had a key specially marked for launching the software.
But I'm pretty sure Bob was not a true ripoff of Navigator, as they both came out the same year. I suspect they were really just simultaneously developed, and modified to add interesting fewatures they heard were going to be in the other.
My larger concern is are they doing it correctly? Are they adding this functionality by creating policy compliant debs and installing them? If not they are actually hurting Ubuntu by making it harder for the Ubuntu support systems to function.
Debian (and thus its derivatives) has historically had one of the nicest package management systems (although these days emerge and yum have made the difference much much smaller than it once was). However the cost of that is that the system requires that packages conform to a relatively strict set of policies, and that hand installed software be installed into /usr/local instead of /usr.
Debs not conforming to those policies, or manual installation of software to /usr can potentially wreck havoc on the system. even if it does not, any problems resulting from them can be far more difficult to diagnose.
US federal laws overule state laws. But a state can issue a contradictory law, no problem there. Normally it would have no real impact, but there are exceptions. If the federal law is removed it its entirety, such as a ruling of unconstitutionality or repeal, then the state law would start to truly apply.
The states do have additional autonomy, and that is where this comes into play. The states have full control over the local law enforcement, and can prohibit enforcement of certain federal laws. Thus only a federal officer could enforce those laws. There are very few federal officers, and they only focus on the biggest crimes.
Now as for traffc law, there are surprisingly few differences. The full-faith and credit clause has been interpreted to require states to recognize driver's licenses and vehicle registrations issued by another state, even if the license or registration would not have been issued in that state to the same person or vehicle.
The base traffic laws are identical. Slight variations exist in speed limits, but they are posted. People are supposed to know the default speed limits in the event that they are not posted, but few courts would even consider trying to enforce unposted limits on out-of-state drivers except in the case that the speed of said driver exceeded any reasonable limit. (think 100 kph in a residential neighborhood).
There are minor other differences. The maximum Blood alcohol content limits once differed, but no longer do. Most states have a ban on open alcoholic beverages in a vehicle, regardless of the state of the driver or who (if anybody) is drinking the beverage. Only a few states lack that law, and residents are aware that their state is an exception, and that they should not have open containers of alcohol in their vehicle while out of state.
There are extremely few other noticeable differences, and virtual all states mandate traffic control devices (markings, signs, traffic lights, etc) conform to the federal standard.
If a state has any other generally rel event traffic laws that differ significantly from other states, they will usually post large signs along the highways just inside the state borders warning drivers.
Yes. It has always been possible to have a free non-premium account, but for the past few years it has been almost impossible to find the sign up form for that.
One can get free premium account access by racking up enough points, but the non-premium accounts have always been free. But they have been trying really hard to make it look like only premium accounts exist.
Hmm... interesting. I've been using http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/winmobileppc/
which is based on 8.6, but was significantly better than any other web browser on WM5 at the time. It sounds like I should be looking at upgrading.
Opera mobile does exist for WM5. I use it. It is far better than the other browsers, but does have a few small missing features. IIRC, there is no find on page feature for example. For the free trial see http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/winmobileppc/
Actually it depends. Sometimes they are just a patching application that does not contain any of the original executable, but just a checksum of executable (so the patches are not applied to a different version where they may not work) and a list of offsets and replacement bytes.
But when they distribute a pre-patched executable, that is definitely a derivative work. The pre-patched system is common these days since many modern CD copy-protection systems use a wrapped-executable model.
The IFR is not actually a proliferation risk. The Wiki notes that it is easier to enrich natural uranium than to create weapons-grade material from the fuel. And the waste has no actinides at all, making it worthless for nuclear weapons. The only reason it was killed was because keeping it around would give the appearance of not doing enough to prevent proliferation, rather than it being a real risk. In other words, it was killed for political reasons, not technical.