"Do I want Monsanto goons having access to the only safe seed left? Hell no. Ever hear of blackmail? What if the only viable unmodified corn was here, and Monsanto 'kidnaps' it. Maybe not for ransom, but for power."
Wait while affix my tinfoil hat...okay, I can agree to a certain point. If you're really that worried then buy some Monsanto stock. That way you win too.
"Now that I think of it, if you wanted to preserve DATA about the DNA, that would be easier maybe than preserving the actual DNA."
With tinfoil hat still firmly in place...how does that save you in an apocalyptic scenario? Where does the technology come into play that gives us a good starting point with seed stock if the technology to manipulate DNA isn't available because of the collapse of civilization?:)
Let's be fair. It is their best interests (and ours) to save specimens of original seed stocks. It's always good to be able to look back to see how you got from there to here...and maybe try and fix some huge mistake so you don't get your ass sued into oblivion. Or, worse case scenario, save the world from your "innovations". We should look at this as a plus.
I agree with your post in its entirety. However..."Maybe if scanning programs defaulted to trying to OCR scanned images, or had a lower default resolution, more of the PDF's you run across would be smaller, but that is a tool issue, not a format issue."
My obviously not well stated point is that the lowest common denominator (Windows end user) doesn't even begin to comprehend the tool much less the format. That's why I see so many ungodly large PDF files.
"The EU distribute their directives and regulations in html and pdf forms. I have seen smaller documents at 58KB (6 pages) and much larger documents with a hundred plus pages. However it still usually remains less than half a meg. I only have found reports to get really large and that because of graphics. My only gripe is that they should bookmark better for navigation (both html and pdf)."
Great, please, please, get your EU folks to educate the idiots here in the USA.
Ahh...coming from an anonymous coward, that would make you a karma-worried rectal orifice of tremendous proportion. Don't want to openly criticize in order to save said karma? There, I replied without worry to karma, feel better?
I accepted responsibility for not stating that I was coming from a non-Slashdot accepted position...Windows centric support. PDF's from the masses = grief. So now I say, mange, merde, et morte.
"The ignorance of Windows users isn't a reason to fight PDF, it is a reason to educate the users and force Microsoft to support a format that others OSes have for years."
I can't argue that point in any way, shape, or form. However, if we could force education upon the users they wouldn't use MS in first place. I have no desire to fight PDF, only the desire for PDF creators to get a clue.
"The whole point of an open standard is that you're not locked into buying Acrobat (which I assume is what you meant by 'Adobe'). There are a bajillion and one PDF creators out there, many of them free. OS X can print to PDFs out-of-the-box."
Of course, Acrobat is what I meant when I said Adobe. Looking from a Windows centric support view I guess I assumed that was a given. From the same Windows centric support view... duh?, what's OS X? While you and I, and many others know there are other options, your typical Windows user (read majority) have no clue that you can even create a pdf in anything other than Adobe (Acrobat).
"The puppy typed 'Adobe' at the moment you were trying to type 'Acrobat'?"
"First, I assume you're talking about Adobe Acrobat, since Adobe is a company, not a product. The whole point of standards is that they do not rely upon any given implementation and anyone and everyone can make their own. Don't like Adobe's free product, get someone else's. I have both free and payware PDF tools from both Adobe and other companies. Do you want better free PDF tools, go ahead and code them, the standard is right there and the licensing to the patents is free. Heck there's even good set of GPL PDF libraries and code from the XPDF project.
You can make pretty small PDFs, depending upon what you put in them. Or, if you want smaller file sizes and are willing to sacrifice features, use postscript, it's been a standard for a long time."
I guess I should been more specific. While there are other options than Adobe and you can make pretty small pdf files, most Windows users are ignorant of those options. And, Adobe's free product is a viewer. It does not give you the ability to create. Have you ever been to a local, state, or government site that has documents available in pdf? Why should a two page text file be two megabytes? Why should a fifty page legal brief be fifteen megabytes? Portable my ass unless you are one of the tech savvy.
"Mail quotas are so mid 90s. Disk space is cheap and so long as you're not using Exchange (which insists on keeping sometimes hundreds of versions of the same file around, since it is too stupid to just keep one copy for everyone) it is not like attachments are much of an issue anymore."
Hmm... Work much in very large organizations? Mail quotas are a fact. And while we're at it, Exchange allows users on the same mail store to have a single instance of an attachment available to all users who received the email until the last user deletes the email.
So, now the "not" so "portable document format" gains further acceptance. I'll grant that it has it's uses but until the full version of Adobe is available for free, or even less expensive, to the masses, it seems to be not quite right. I'd also certainly rather have a format that is a lot less file size intensive. To all mail users...no, you can't keep all of those emails with pdf's in your inbox without going over your quota. Save the damn things and delete the emails.
"Haha! Truckers don't look at Road Signs! Hell, they don't even look before they change lanes. I had one force me over a lane just the other day. They're crazy if they think truckers will just turn around and go another way if the road says "no trucks"."
First, you were probably sitting in his blind spot. Trucks aren't exactly known for their view friendly dimensions. Remember, the rule is if you can't see their mirrors they can't see you. Most truckers seem to drive a whole lot better than the cell phone using, texting, make-up putting on, shaving, eating, or newspaper reading car drivers I see every day.
Second, I have to agree that many truck AND car drivers can't seem to read signs or ignore them even if they do read them. There's a train bridge in downtown Baltimore that seems to collect a or two truck weekly despite multiple signs giving the maximum clearance. I always found it amusing to see the damage to the trailer and then watch as they let the air out of all of the tires and then towed them out.
"You!=Everyone else:) You have to remember that every bad story about Vista isn't representing the whole truth - that there are thousands of folks out there who are using Vista on a day-to-day basis, and are not having problems."
Hmm... Thousands out there not having problems? Citation please. While every bad story about Vista may not represent the whole truth...I doubt your statement does either. If only thousands are not having problems out of millions, wouldn't that represent a significant issue with reliability? I'll grant that my experience with Vista is limited but I sure as hell was unimpressed. It might be that other installations aren't dead dog slow but I don't intend to have one at home until I have to support it at work. That might be a long time according to my bosses.
"I'm a geek an all. But, I've never heard of erratum."
Mod me down, call me troll, but please don't claim to be a geek if you can claim to never have heard of erratum or errata. That's as bad as not knowing what a bug is or calling a PC case and its contents a hard drive.
This is new for Maryland. Using the car repair scenario...labor is not taxed in Maryland, parts are. They also have other services in the queue for sales tax. They were also looking at tanning, landscaping, and video game arcades which are/were not currently taxed in the same way sales tax is applied on products.
Dude, judges often try to find some issue to deflect their having to make a decision on the matter at hand. I'd call it "better safe than sorry and leave no trail". It's the truly brave judges who will decide that a "principle" matters. Research desegregation in USA public schools and Roe v. Wade.
"Yeah, I'm sure striking down laws allowing rich people to automatically win the election is for the good of the nation, and exactly what the Founders intended."
Why does your post sound sarcastic? Are you saying that the "Founders" were plutocratic and/or oligarchic? Are you talking about Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin, et al? While most were somewhat wealthy, they also mostly made that wealth themselves. More than a few, including Franklin, came from humble beginnings. How do you prescribe to know the intent of the USA founders who lived and died over 200 years ago? The Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights certainly don't seem to favor the rich.
Thank you for an insightful and finally on-topic post. There is only one issue. MS is requiring that ALL machines in the school have MS licenses regardless of whether or not they use actually MS OS/apps on an individual machine.
Obviously this is an unacceptable requirement for any school. Likewise, this would be unacceptable for a business and an attempt to apply this towards schools could...(tinfoil hat on) be a precursor to trying to press additional license requirements on businesses.
"Typing tutors have been available on Linux since before Windows or Macintosh even existed."
Sorry, calling bullshit on you. According to Wikipedia (not a source that is completely unimpeachable) Windows was available in '83 and GNU, a Linux precursor was started in development Jan. 5 of 1984. Macintosh was released in Jan. of '84. So...a typing tutor was created before Win or Mac even though those operating systems were released prior? Anecdotally, I seem to remember using a typing tutor on my Apple II+ that I'm sure ported to Mac. The Apple II+ was released in '79 and I had one in '81 or '82.
From Wikipedia; "The plan for the GNU operating system was publicly announced on September 27, 1983, on the net.unix-wizards and net.usoft newsgroups by Richard Stallman..."Software development began on January 5, 1984, when Stallman quit his job at Massachusetts Institute of Technology so that they could not claim ownership or interfere with distributing GNU as free software.", "The Linux kernel has been marked by constant growth throughout its history. Since the initial release of its source code in 1991...", "In 1983 Microsoft announced its development of Windows, a graphical user interface (GUI) for its own operating system (MS-DOS) that had shipped for IBM PC and compatible computers since 1981.", "Named after the McIntosh variety of apple, the original Macintosh was released on January 24, 1984."
"The biggest problem systems like Linux have is prejudice and ignorance from people like you."
The biggest problem with SOME Linux users is their superior attitude and their ignorance of history. I'm in my 40's and have played with Timex Sinclair, TRS-80, Commodore, Apple II+, III, Lisa, Macs, IBM PC Jr, DOS, all Win flavors, Unix, mainframes, and currently run Ubuntu on my laptop. Don't try and snow us old timers you whippersnapper.
"Since half the consoles have to be replaced multiple times, they're definitely losing money on each console.
Another lesson in measure-twice; cut once. Imagine how much better they'd be doing financially, if they hadn't screwed up on the initial hardware design?
Then again, they also have morons like myself who bought two 360s, so that they'd always have one to play even when the other is "in the shop"."
I had to paste your whole comment because I have to respond to it all where I initially was going to only respond to part...I'll take your points out of order.
Last part...morons like you. I'll beg to differ and give you a high five. Buying two means you are a fan. That's not a bad thing for an overall good product like the Xbox. Second point, measure once, cut twice; a significant failure but tellingly...not a fatal failure. Your first point...losing money on each console, this too shall pass. I'm not a MS fan or hater. Exchange, good; server OS, constantly improving; desktop OS, damn do they fuck up; Office apps, too much eye candy and not enough focus on basics. If they eventually fail in any arena I doubt it will be their game console.
"Go read your post, come to the realization that you are an asshole."
Why would I need to go read my post? I wrote it. As an acknowledged grammar Nazi I prefer the term "rectal orifice" to "asshole". Then again, I am...alshithead.
I've really been trying to keep the grammar Nazi hat on shelf but people keep taunting me...
"They are both worthless companies that do no add any value what so ever. Both can DIAF and the industry would be much better."
I'll assume the "no" instead of "not" was a typographical error. However, "what so ever" is preferred as "whatsoever". This is the first time I've seen the acronym "DIAF". I had to go look it up to find out that it means "die in a fire". I must be getting old.
"The phrase "more better" is acceptable English. suck it grammar Nazis"
Hmmm... I'll bet you suck dick more better than me. That just doesn't sound right does it? Acceptable is in the eye of the beholder and even more importantly, just because something is acceptable doesn't mean that it is the best choice. You can go ahead and say "more better" all you want and the rest of us will just consider you to be an illiterate fuck.
"Led Zepplin held a lottery for tickets to an upcoming concert.
They neglected to tell the winners the tickets were non-transferable."
I seem to remember hearing that the tickets were non-transferable when I first heard that they would be available by lottery only. That was the whole idea, cut out the scalping.
"Let's get something straight - sharing copyrighted material is a crime, and if the the RIAA went about prosecuting just for that they wouldn't get half the flack that they do."
Hmmm...crime? I don't think so. How about a tort? "Damage, injury, or a wrongful act done willfully, negligently, or in circumstances involving strict liability, but not involving breach of contract, for which a civil suit can be brought."
However, I will agree wholeheartedly with you that the burden of evidence needs to be increased. That has been my biggest problem with their cases to this point. Show me the evidence! A smoking gun, in your hand, with no one else holding a gun will be sufficient.
Sorry, no. The last Apple product I owned was an Apple II+ which definitely dates me. No iPod, no Mac, no iPhone. Like I said, I'll wait. I'm happy with Ubuntu for personal use and support MS platforms for work. Some day...when I have the disposable income, I'll get a Mac. I'll probably never buy an iPod and replacing my functional 5 year old cell phone won't happen until it dies.
More iPhone news? Does Britney Spears know about this? I guess not, if she did we would seeing it on CNN along with her little dogs too.
Look, Apple has their business model, their attorneys have assessed it, and Apple is going ahead with what they think they can make the biggest buck. Will they win in the end? IMHO they will. I can't see a business as savvy as Apple making some dumb marketing mistake that is going to cripple their iPhone line in any given country. They made their mistakes long ago with Apple III/Lisa and/or other lines and have done nothing but win consumers over since then. The iPhone is a tremendous jump over standard cell phones and will lead the way for the foreseeable future. Their staff attorneys are ready and willing to fight any argument that France or anyone else will throw at them. Personally, I'll wait until they have matured their market to the point I don't have to worry about bricking or contracts tied to a specific provider.
You know...that's exactly why I put the smiley face at the end of my post. I briefly looked over your home page and saw you were multi-lingual but it wasn't readily apparent if you were a native English speaker or not. I bow to your ability to learn other languages! It's also why I wrote a couple of sentences using "loose" and "lose" correctly. I had a sneaking suspicion that I might be pinging someone who didn't necessarily deserve it but I wasn't sure. I just couldn't overcome the need to spew about "lose" and "loose" when I see so many native English speakers using it incorrectly. My step-son's generation seems to be around 90% illiterate. God help us all when they take control.
Slashdot Mirror
"Do I want Monsanto goons having access to the only safe seed left? Hell no. Ever hear of blackmail? What if the only viable unmodified corn was here, and Monsanto 'kidnaps' it. Maybe not for ransom, but for power."
:)
Wait while affix my tinfoil hat...okay, I can agree to a certain point. If you're really that worried then buy some Monsanto stock. That way you win too.
"Now that I think of it, if you wanted to preserve DATA about the DNA, that would be easier maybe than preserving the actual DNA."
With tinfoil hat still firmly in place...how does that save you in an apocalyptic scenario? Where does the technology come into play that gives us a good starting point with seed stock if the technology to manipulate DNA isn't available because of the collapse of civilization?
"... in charge of saving our agricultural bacon?"
Let's be fair. It is their best interests (and ours) to save specimens of original seed stocks. It's always good to be able to look back to see how you got from there to here...and maybe try and fix some huge mistake so you don't get your ass sued into oblivion. Or, worse case scenario, save the world from your "innovations". We should look at this as a plus.
I agree with your post in its entirety. However..."Maybe if scanning programs defaulted to trying to OCR scanned images, or had a lower default resolution, more of the PDF's you run across would be smaller, but that is a tool issue, not a format issue."
My obviously not well stated point is that the lowest common denominator (Windows end user) doesn't even begin to comprehend the tool much less the format. That's why I see so many ungodly large PDF files.
"The EU distribute their directives and regulations in html and pdf forms. I have seen smaller documents at 58KB (6 pages) and much larger documents with a hundred plus pages. However it still usually remains less than half a meg. I only have found reports to get really large and that because of graphics. My only gripe is that they should bookmark better for navigation (both html and pdf)."
Great, please, please, get your EU folks to educate the idiots here in the USA.
"Intellectually bankrupt loser."
Ahh...coming from an anonymous coward, that would make you a karma-worried rectal orifice of tremendous proportion. Don't want to openly criticize in order to save said karma? There, I replied without worry to karma, feel better?
I accepted responsibility for not stating that I was coming from a non-Slashdot accepted position...Windows centric support. PDF's from the masses = grief. So now I say, mange, merde, et morte.
"The ignorance of Windows users isn't a reason to fight PDF, it is a reason to educate the users and force Microsoft to support a format that others OSes have for years."
I can't argue that point in any way, shape, or form. However, if we could force education upon the users they wouldn't use MS in first place. I have no desire to fight PDF, only the desire for PDF creators to get a clue.
"The whole point of an open standard is that you're not locked into buying Acrobat (which I assume is what you meant by 'Adobe'). There are a bajillion and one PDF creators out there, many of them free. OS X can print to PDFs out-of-the-box."
:)
Of course, Acrobat is what I meant when I said Adobe. Looking from a Windows centric support view I guess I assumed that was a given. From the same Windows centric support view... duh?, what's OS X? While you and I, and many others know there are other options, your typical Windows user (read majority) have no clue that you can even create a pdf in anything other than Adobe (Acrobat).
"The puppy typed 'Adobe' at the moment you were trying to type 'Acrobat'?"
The puppy says, "Fruck roo, go rinux".
"Umm, what isn't portable about PDFs?"
Uh, large file size?
"First, I assume you're talking about Adobe Acrobat, since Adobe is a company, not a product. The whole point of standards is that they do not rely upon any given implementation and anyone and everyone can make their own. Don't like Adobe's free product, get someone else's. I have both free and payware PDF tools from both Adobe and other companies. Do you want better free PDF tools, go ahead and code them, the standard is right there and the licensing to the patents is free. Heck there's even good set of GPL PDF libraries and code from the XPDF project.
You can make pretty small PDFs, depending upon what you put in them. Or, if you want smaller file sizes and are willing to sacrifice features, use postscript, it's been a standard for a long time."
I guess I should been more specific. While there are other options than Adobe and you can make pretty small pdf files, most Windows users are ignorant of those options. And, Adobe's free product is a viewer. It does not give you the ability to create. Have you ever been to a local, state, or government site that has documents available in pdf? Why should a two page text file be two megabytes? Why should a fifty page legal brief be fifteen megabytes? Portable my ass unless you are one of the tech savvy.
"Mail quotas are so mid 90s. Disk space is cheap and so long as you're not using Exchange (which insists on keeping sometimes hundreds of versions of the same file around, since it is too stupid to just keep one copy for everyone) it is not like attachments are much of an issue anymore."
Hmm... Work much in very large organizations? Mail quotas are a fact. And while we're at it, Exchange allows users on the same mail store to have a single instance of an attachment available to all users who received the email until the last user deletes the email.
So, now the "not" so "portable document format" gains further acceptance. I'll grant that it has it's uses but until the full version of Adobe is available for free, or even less expensive, to the masses, it seems to be not quite right. I'd also certainly rather have a format that is a lot less file size intensive. To all mail users...no, you can't keep all of those emails with pdf's in your inbox without going over your quota. Save the damn things and delete the emails.
"Haha! Truckers don't look at Road Signs!
Hell, they don't even look before they change lanes. I had one force me over a lane just the other day. They're crazy if they think truckers will just turn around and go another way if the road says "no trucks"."
First, you were probably sitting in his blind spot. Trucks aren't exactly known for their view friendly dimensions. Remember, the rule is if you can't see their mirrors they can't see you. Most truckers seem to drive a whole lot better than the cell phone using, texting, make-up putting on, shaving, eating, or newspaper reading car drivers I see every day.
Second, I have to agree that many truck AND car drivers can't seem to read signs or ignore them even if they do read them. There's a train bridge in downtown Baltimore that seems to collect a or two truck weekly despite multiple signs giving the maximum clearance. I always found it amusing to see the damage to the trailer and then watch as they let the air out of all of the tires and then towed them out.
"You!=Everyone else :) You have to remember that every bad story about Vista isn't representing the whole truth - that there are thousands of folks out there who are using Vista on a day-to-day basis, and are not having problems."
Hmm... Thousands out there not having problems? Citation please. While every bad story about Vista may not represent the whole truth...I doubt your statement does either. If only thousands are not having problems out of millions, wouldn't that represent a significant issue with reliability? I'll grant that my experience with Vista is limited but I sure as hell was unimpressed. It might be that other installations aren't dead dog slow but I don't intend to have one at home until I have to support it at work. That might be a long time according to my bosses.
"I'm a geek an all. But, I've never heard of erratum."
Mod me down, call me troll, but please don't claim to be a geek if you can claim to never have heard of erratum or errata. That's as bad as not knowing what a bug is or calling a PC case and its contents a hard drive.
Here's a heartfelt suggestion...read more.
This is new for Maryland. Using the car repair scenario...labor is not taxed in Maryland, parts are. They also have other services in the queue for sales tax. They were also looking at tanning, landscaping, and video game arcades which are/were not currently taxed in the same way sales tax is applied on products.
Dude, judges often try to find some issue to deflect their having to make a decision on the matter at hand. I'd call it "better safe than sorry and leave no trail". It's the truly brave judges who will decide that a "principle" matters. Research desegregation in USA public schools and Roe v. Wade.
"Yeah, I'm sure striking down laws allowing rich people to automatically win the election is for the good of the nation, and exactly what the Founders intended."
Why does your post sound sarcastic? Are you saying that the "Founders" were plutocratic and/or oligarchic? Are you talking about Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin, et al? While most were somewhat wealthy, they also mostly made that wealth themselves. More than a few, including Franklin, came from humble beginnings. How do you prescribe to know the intent of the USA founders who lived and died over 200 years ago? The Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights certainly don't seem to favor the rich.
Thank you for an insightful and finally on-topic post. There is only one issue. MS is requiring that ALL machines in the school have MS licenses regardless of whether or not they use actually MS OS/apps on an individual machine.
Obviously this is an unacceptable requirement for any school. Likewise, this would be unacceptable for a business and an attempt to apply this towards schools could...(tinfoil hat on) be a precursor to trying to press additional license requirements on businesses.
"Typing tutors have been available on Linux since before Windows or Macintosh even existed."
Sorry, calling bullshit on you. According to Wikipedia (not a source that is completely unimpeachable) Windows was available in '83 and GNU, a Linux precursor was started in development Jan. 5 of 1984. Macintosh was released in Jan. of '84. So...a typing tutor was created before Win or Mac even though those operating systems were released prior? Anecdotally, I seem to remember using a typing tutor on my Apple II+ that I'm sure ported to Mac. The Apple II+ was released in '79 and I had one in '81 or '82.
From Wikipedia; "The plan for the GNU operating system was publicly announced on September 27, 1983, on the net.unix-wizards and net.usoft newsgroups by Richard Stallman..."Software development began on January 5, 1984, when Stallman quit his job at Massachusetts Institute of Technology so that they could not claim ownership or interfere with distributing GNU as free software.", "The Linux kernel has been marked by constant growth throughout its history. Since the initial release of its source code in 1991...", "In 1983 Microsoft announced its development of Windows, a graphical user interface (GUI) for its own operating system (MS-DOS) that had shipped for IBM PC and compatible computers since 1981.", "Named after the McIntosh variety of apple, the original Macintosh was released on January 24, 1984."
"The biggest problem systems like Linux have is prejudice and ignorance from people like you."
The biggest problem with SOME Linux users is their superior attitude and their ignorance of history. I'm in my 40's and have played with Timex Sinclair, TRS-80, Commodore, Apple II+, III, Lisa, Macs, IBM PC Jr, DOS, all Win flavors, Unix, mainframes, and currently run Ubuntu on my laptop. Don't try and snow us old timers you whippersnapper.
"Since half the consoles have to be replaced multiple times, they're definitely losing money on each console.
Another lesson in measure-twice; cut once. Imagine how much better they'd be doing financially, if they hadn't screwed up on the initial hardware design?
Then again, they also have morons like myself who bought two 360s, so that they'd always have one to play even when the other is "in the shop"."
I had to paste your whole comment because I have to respond to it all where I initially was going to only respond to part...I'll take your points out of order.
Last part...morons like you. I'll beg to differ and give you a high five. Buying two means you are a fan. That's not a bad thing for an overall good product like the Xbox. Second point, measure once, cut twice; a significant failure but tellingly...not a fatal failure. Your first point...losing money on each console, this too shall pass. I'm not a MS fan or hater. Exchange, good; server OS, constantly improving; desktop OS, damn do they fuck up; Office apps, too much eye candy and not enough focus on basics. If they eventually fail in any arena I doubt it will be their game console.
"Go read your post, come to the realization that you are an asshole."
Why would I need to go read my post? I wrote it. As an acknowledged grammar Nazi I prefer the term "rectal orifice" to "asshole". Then again, I am...alshithead.
al
I've really been trying to keep the grammar Nazi hat on shelf but people keep taunting me...
"They are both worthless companies that do no add any value what so ever. Both can DIAF and the industry would be much better."
I'll assume the "no" instead of "not" was a typographical error. However, "what so ever" is preferred as "whatsoever". This is the first time I've seen the acronym "DIAF". I had to go look it up to find out that it means "die in a fire". I must be getting old.
"The phrase "more better" is acceptable English. suck it grammar Nazis"
Hmmm... I'll bet you suck dick more better than me. That just doesn't sound right does it? Acceptable is in the eye of the beholder and even more importantly, just because something is acceptable doesn't mean that it is the best choice. You can go ahead and say "more better" all you want and the rest of us will just consider you to be an illiterate fuck.
"Led Zepplin held a lottery for tickets to an upcoming concert.
They neglected to tell the winners the tickets were non-transferable."
I seem to remember hearing that the tickets were non-transferable when I first heard that they would be available by lottery only. That was the whole idea, cut out the scalping.
"Let's get something straight - sharing copyrighted material is a crime, and if the the RIAA went about prosecuting just for that they wouldn't get half the flack that they do."
Hmmm...crime? I don't think so. How about a tort? "Damage, injury, or a wrongful act done willfully, negligently, or in circumstances involving strict liability, but not involving breach of contract, for which a civil suit can be brought."
However, I will agree wholeheartedly with you that the burden of evidence needs to be increased. That has been my biggest problem with their cases to this point. Show me the evidence! A smoking gun, in your hand, with no one else holding a gun will be sufficient.
"Fanboy much?"
Sorry, no. The last Apple product I owned was an Apple II+ which definitely dates me. No iPod, no Mac, no iPhone. Like I said, I'll wait. I'm happy with Ubuntu for personal use and support MS platforms for work. Some day...when I have the disposable income, I'll get a Mac. I'll probably never buy an iPod and replacing my functional 5 year old cell phone won't happen until it dies.
More iPhone news? Does Britney Spears know about this? I guess not, if she did we would seeing it on CNN along with her little dogs too.
Look, Apple has their business model, their attorneys have assessed it, and Apple is going ahead with what they think they can make the biggest buck. Will they win in the end? IMHO they will. I can't see a business as savvy as Apple making some dumb marketing mistake that is going to cripple their iPhone line in any given country. They made their mistakes long ago with Apple III/Lisa and/or other lines and have done nothing but win consumers over since then. The iPhone is a tremendous jump over standard cell phones and will lead the way for the foreseeable future. Their staff attorneys are ready and willing to fight any argument that France or anyone else will throw at them. Personally, I'll wait until they have matured their market to the point I don't have to worry about bricking or contracts tied to a specific provider.
You know...that's exactly why I put the smiley face at the end of my post. I briefly looked over your home page and saw you were multi-lingual but it wasn't readily apparent if you were a native English speaker or not. I bow to your ability to learn other languages! It's also why I wrote a couple of sentences using "loose" and "lose" correctly. I had a sneaking suspicion that I might be pinging someone who didn't necessarily deserve it but I wasn't sure. I just couldn't overcome the need to spew about "lose" and "loose" when I see so many native English speakers using it incorrectly. My step-son's generation seems to be around 90% illiterate. God help us all when they take control.