'...while Oracle hinted at an appeal, saying it will “continue to defend and uphold Java’s core write-once, run-anywhere principle and ensure it is protected for the nine million Java developers and the community that depend on Java compatibility.”
Oracle are doing this for the Java developing community...? Did anyone from the Java developing community request this or perhaps tell Oracle "No, really, it's fine, you don't have to...."
I do some amatuer photography in my spare time, I blog occasionally, I write silly (unpublished) stories and occasionally upload crappy but original videos to YouTube.
By that definition I'm a rightsholder and so are trillions like me.
Why was I left out of the consultation about these proposals?!
Some big US business to purchase a new .europe TLD and simply undercut prices and undermine the registration of .eu entirely?
This whole business of money and litigation over domain names is ridiculous in the face of it. I can type stuff.com in a browser, I can type stuff.eu in a browser, I don't need any kind of visa or documentation before I can access the website.
Any website that has legitimate, interesting content or specialist product, is going to get the traffic anyway. Having a .eu or a .us or .anything is not going to drive you more traffic based on that - it will be based on links, which comes from word-of-mouth, instore advertising or viral. The TLD is completely irrelevant.
In any case, anyone who does attempt to find their special interest thing online who types in a .com address and doesn't find it, will simply try .co.uk, then .eu. With apologies for invoking a grating term, Cyberprotectionism is not really something that works in practice.
So when youre in a situation like I'm involved in where a company is trying to setup in the US and migrate already employed officers over; so they can build a US presence and train and hire American workers, but your getting push back and visa denials from US immgration, that's a good thing is it?
Free trade benefits both sides, contrary to the fear and paranoia spread by American media. The US government just doesn't know how to follow the money, they only appeal to the lowest common denominator which is set by the afformentioned media.
Sure manufactoring should be afforded some protection but don't turn away entities that actually want to spend money in your economy.
Sounds like Microsoft's own worst enemy is Microsoft. They should have gone ahead and split the company up like the original judge ordered in the anti-trust suit.
OpenDNS has it's own customisable filter settings, you can access from your account. I think it's set to "Low" (spam, fraud etc...) by default and Pirate Bay might be in that category, but you can change it and create custom filters.
Re: If your work isn't distributed who will know that your gigs are worth paying to attend?
Indeed.
If only there was a way to not rely on these aggressive and slow distributors (who now own the rights to your works) and instead distribute your work fast, efficiently and without artificial release dates and geolocation locks...
If someone could just come up with the technology then you'd stand to gain a much wider audience who would be willing to attend your gigs!
Re: If nobody wants to pay you for it, it isn't a job.
I agree with this statement. I'm not perpetually being rewarded for the work I do today (which does involve coding) despite the fact my company and clients are going to benefit to the tune of hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
Perhaps art, music and other creative works need to revert back to the work-for-hire model, where performances are commissioned with a one-time payment, and then simply accepted as public domain from then on.
mp3 recordings should be treated with the same level of enforcement as photographs of museum pieces and public places, only really enforced on commercial use, not private. Then those in far off lands, who hear you via mp3 and want a public performance can commission you to travel and appear to perform it...
Now if only popular musicians could take advantage of this business model somehow?!
Many freetards are already spending their own money on VPN services and membership of newsgroups. I think the problem here is availability of content (at the right price point) rather than wanting stuff for free. The free argument has been successfully rebutted many times already.
What I find incredulous is that big media companies complaining about how much money pirate sites make through advertising have failed to recognise a new business opportunity and get in on the game!
How many freetards would stop a downloaded TV episode that had a couple of advertisements tacked on the front, or even a commercial break in the middle? How many would go online to find an ad free one? Not many, they'd sit through or skip ahead like they do with legacy TV channels.
Why does big media continue to favor spending wads of cash on expensive lawyers, rather than embrace a new revenue stream? It's idiotic and arse-backwards.
As far as the block is concerned, I will have fun watching them trying to catch a swarm of bees with a thimble! Can't wait too see what their next comedic move will be.
I go to B&N often to browse and drink coffee. I don't often buy any books though, I flick through or read the back to decide if I should download a copy for my tablet.
Any bookstore like B&N need to take advantage of this physical presence - book people still like going into bookshops - just not buying. If the had an app that would let you scan the barcode right away and make the purchase whilst you're standing there in store I think they'd have a killer feature. Or maybe even a free digital copy with the physical purchase.
Imagine standing at the shelf, you like the book, instead of going home or going somewhere else and forgetting it, you scan the barcode and buy, then with the book downloaded, you go sit and drink coffee while you read it.
They could even implement a system whereby you can download previews of books whilst you're on their free wifi, causing more people to come and drink coffee there whilst reading free previews (and occasionally converting into a sale).
I'd hate to see B&N go the way of Borders, but whilst they still have the attention of physical customers (who are increasingly making digital purchases) they need to take a few risks and try to make digital purchases part of an 'experience', rather than a process.
Oh look, a Microsoft software article, did you know you can subscribe to Technet?
Geez...
It's getting as a bad as every article about browsers. You know at some point during the comment thread that someone is going to post "Opera has been doing this for years, Opera really is the best, Why was Opera not mentioned? Opera is my browser and I use it everyday. Opera tastes like yummy honey on crumpets..."
Is documentary proof that the patent owner is actively taking steps to implement the designs outlined which could reasonably easily be established, you'd think.
Or perhaps then, a return to the original concept of patents, you had to actually present your working invention/innovation to have it patented?
The problem with that approach is that it also impacts genuine innovators who, for certain reasons (cost, limitations of current tech, etc) cannot, yet, implement their own innovation.
And the problem with calling anyone with an active imagination a "genuine innovator" is that it's simply protecting the "I thought of it first" mentality. Rather than protecting the person who also thinks of it (completely independently), but then puts time and money into actually building it.
Either you agree that someone can think ideas all day, invent nothing and profit from those who do, or you agree that those who invent get first shot at exploiting their invention.
If you genuinely have a great new idea, keep your mouth shut until you can afford to build it. Unless there are people who exist who can mind-read, if someone else comes up with the same idea independently and then puts the hard work in to create it - they deserve the credit that comes.
Of course then if so many people can come up with the same idea we step into 'non-obvious' territory, so perhaps what is needed is a separate class of patents called "idea-patents" or something like that - where people can register an idea with a central office.
Then if someone later innovates on an existing tech, the number of separate idea-patents that it crosses with are counted, if it is above a certain threshold (many people had the same 'idea') then it gets dismissed as too obvious.
Lately I've just been wondering if I should post a copyright take-down notice every time I see someone shared a photo, video or quote on Facebook. Since it's based in the US, I can use a DMCA request.
You might argue of course, that I'd be filing false DMCA requests and liable for perjury and legal repercussions... to which I'd reply "don't make me laugh!"*
*that's the punchline by the way - that people who file false DMCA requests face legal repercussions.
At the moment we have rising unemployment but interest rates are low, if they rise the situation will get really bad, remember the recession in the 80's with mortgages at 14% ?
But those mortgages were capped at 3.5 times income and house prices at healthy sane affordable levels. The spectacular bust in house prices we saw recently can be squarely blamed on lowering interest rates (look you can now afford to borrow MORE!); increased mortgage cap (6x income); lax regulations (self-cert anyone?); my-house-should-be-worth-double-now sellers; shared-ownership schemes (all the cons of ownership + all the cons of renting)... I could go on.
Which would you prefer? A huge loan and tiny interest paid off over 30 years, or a small loan, high interest paid off over 15 years - because I can tell you which is the cheapest one and I'll give you a hint: It's not the one that stays with for 3 decades.
Actually my tablet has become my primary device at home...
Since I spend most of the day looking at a screen and bits of code, many nights when I get home I don't even want to fire up my laptop - but I do want to catch up on news, check email, play a quick game to wind down.
I used to boot up my laptop, then later a netbook to do that. Trouble is if it's just one news article I wanted to finish reading, or one email I want to respond to, I'd have to go to the desk/table or find a comfortable place to sit; then wait to boot up; then fire up an app or log into the browser. Then maybe I have to leave it plugged in all night if I'm waiting for a response or something.
Nowadays, 80% of the time I don't need the laptop/netbook. I can read that one article and put it down, pick up later to get that email response, and move around to the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, doing what I need to do in each room whilst reading. I can also move around whilst video calling. I can show the wife my hotel room and view from the window easily.
Sure there's the phone for that, but it can get fiddly and a large screen is more immersive. I find some things work better on the phone and some work better on the tablet.
The only reason I have a laptop is work purposes really. If I was in a 9-5 fixed location job, I'd have a desktop and a tablet and that would be it.
There are critical differences between a leak and a hack.
Besides the expenses leak was not just in the public interest, it was in the public's right to know - being the footer of the bills.
Heather Brooke - the original FOI submitter and journalist at the center has written a superb book covering the travesty of how successive UK governments have tried to keep the public in the dark - only to be completely blindsided by the emergence of the internet and FOI laws.
Does this mean I can patent my innovative idea of tacking a touchscreen monitor onto the side of a normal PC flatscreen monitor and sue for $MEGA when someone inevitably does it...?
My thoughts are corporates only get in on the game when a social network or blogging service turns popular amongst the great unwashed.
If you're so popular that corporate entities are taking advantage of your service to try and reach wallet^H^H^H^H^H^Haudiences, why not charge corporates to use your network and be done with it?
Well let's just I happened to be 100 yards away from you on a rooftop with my own precision rifle. I can't see the guy with the machine gun but I can see you sitting there with a scoped rifle about to shoot someone down below... what then?
That's the problem with these 'shoot-first' self-defense laws as exhibited in Florida currently. At what point do you draw the line between standing your ground against someone standing their ground? At what point are you qualified to judge a 'suspicious' person is guilty of committing a crime and it's your place to stop them?
Anyway the discussion was about the death penalty, not hypothetical life or death situations - in this case what to do about the man who already slaughtered those people with his machine gun.
Sadly no matter what punishment is done to him, that's not going to resurrect those people and history shows, it's not going to prevent similar future incidents either. Perhaps there are other useful ways he could be made to compensate?
Protest from a clued up tech community can be effective, but it's still only a minority compared to mainstream ignorance and/or apathy.
When I think of what's needed to get these mainstream people to actually understand what is wrong with some of these laws the government tries to introduce, I think protest is the wrong way to go about it.
What the tech community instead should do is lobby some of these politicians to insert some last minute overnight amendments like all the proposed legislation also retroactively applies to mail/vehicles/homes.
Then the bill either gets dropped or vetoed because it's unpalatable, or the bill gets passed and mainstream get literal taste of what the tech community has only been able to express in analogy up until that point.
Unlimited = must be achievable by at least 10% of users
OK, Got it!
Not that either word can be prevented from use, given that the ASA is merely an efficient self-regulatory arm of the ad industry and doesn't actually have any government sanctioned dentures.
Is this not akin to taking your child to the supermarket, telling them they can go and pick one toy; but because you can't be bothered to go to the toy department with them (and don't know how much the toys are worth) you hand over your wallet and send them off whilst you do the shopping?
Then when you find little Johnny/Janice has spent $500 on toys, you sue the supermarket.
Here's a parenting tip, try spending some time with your child at play, supervise their use of the phone/tablet. If you don't have time and need to leave them alone then give them some paper and crayons, a lego project, or some physical game or activity to do - until you do have the time - to play together on the shiny.
Guess what, children have great imagination! They'll make a spaceship or a robot out of a cardboard box (my nephew's latest creation). It could be argued that babysitting them with an iPhone causes them to lose that imagination, instead training them to be nothing more than good little wallets.
For all those infuriated iParents commenting on this thread, I have no idea how you were raised but I was raised in a time when mobile phones were only a sparkle in Martin Cooper's eye. I survived on my imagination and so will your little fart.
But what do I know, I don't have kids so I don't have the parenting certificate that pops out with the placenta.
Thanks for that insight, it clears a few things up.
So am I to understand that a company that has no interest in making mobile phones or competing in that market, would not license what is essentially a free platform on desktop computer - but is now suing a company that has used it to create something brilliant that the original creators did not foresee or intend?
JavaME licensing appears to be the crux of Oracle's vexatious litigation. Larry has noticed that ever more powerful smartphones make things like JavaME obsolete. As smartphones catch up and even surpass some desktops in power and functionality; it's only natural evolution that JavaSE would be desired over something that belongs in a museum.
The real question here should be "what is a computer?" The smartphone in my pocket is now more powerful and functional than several previous desktop and laptop computers I have owned in the past.
Is it the ability to make calls and SMS? Both laptops and desktops are now capable of that - though they are not as convenient to carry around.
Re: I'm not sure Microsoft's hands were trying to pull them back from the brink
Wasn't there some kind of PR statement where Elop said their goal was 3rd place in the phone market? Doesn't really inspire confidence does it? Leaping from a burning platform to a sinking platform.
Looking forward to the multitude of I-told-you-sos on El Reg forums when Nokia finally gets Borg'd by the Microsoft cube.
Also, I think part of the problem, for middle men publishers/distributors, is a confusion over what their business model was about. They didn't sell music, they've never sold music, they're distributors. Taking a voice only available in one location, packaging and delivering it worldwide.
They provided distribution and advertising for the artist, in return they charge the receiver of music (and via loan to the artist) for the delivery. - in the same way that UPS charges for packaging and delivery of goods from a online store (the next industry in decline when 3d printing takes off).
The internet was a major gift to them but like Kodak, rather than embrace digital they tried to protect the old method of storing images.
Instead of finding ways to fulfil their business priority of distribution utilising the internet, they've hurt themselves by trying to artificially slow or stop such methods.
Insightful reading, but it makes it sound as though Amazon was really just the facilitator to the greed and fear of the big 6 publishers.
But publishers aren't software companies. They just want to sell books. And so they outsourced the DRM to the ebook resellers. Including Amazon...
For AMZN, the big six insistence on DRM on ebooks was a windfall: it made the huge investment in the Kindle platform worthwhile, and by 2010 Amazon had come close to an 85% market share in the ebook sector...
So the publishers insisted on DRM - but forced the resellers (including Amazon) to implement it. When Amazon did, having the largest share of the eBook market effectively reverse locked-in the publishers (just as customers are locked-in).
Hoisted by their own petard it seems. Still it's nice to know that publishers suffer from own their stupid insistence on DRM as well as their customers.
Let's hope Stross is right and they see the error of their ways.
"HR 3523 would impose no new obligations on us to share data with anyone – and ensures that if we do share data about specific cyber threats, we are able to continue to safeguard our users’ private information, just as we do today,'"
So why do you need a new law if you're already doing it?
"They're not looking for some kid in the Dallas suburbs hacking into his school to change his grade,"
Well if this case is anything to go by, they will impound your car, as well as all the other cars on the street. Then later state they no longer want or need your car but you can't have it back - instead it can be crushed.
I'm not impressed with corporations being allowed take ownership of generic terms such as 'drink', 'music' etc... .cocacola and .mafiaa are OK but this is like a reverse domain-squatting on written language itself.
In some cases it could lead to certain brands or companies inferring that they are the only regulator and provider of legitimate services, rather than just another competitor in a market.
Also, perhaps the inverse is true. If you hack servers of UK/US firms that are actually hosted in countries with less stringent enforcement and regulations in place you can attack them with impunity?
If they can get a ban on MS in Germany, then it might cause MS to back off on trying to strong-arm Moto into a license agreement on their bogus Linux patents or even enter a MAD agreement.
I did not bother with eye-bleeding MySpace, went with FB instead. Then I went to Twitter when the MySpace refugees hit FB. I'm now on G+ (though I still use FB to keep in touch with the oldies).
I find I'm one of those types who tends to flee social networks when all the teens arrive so looks like I recently abandoned Twitter right on cue. What does category does that put me in?
It's called a cartel and it's supposed to be illegal, but of course because this is a 'copyright' issue then the modus operandi here can basically be ignored.
Copyright and patents... the 'think-of-the-children' cry for corporations.
Register
377 posts • joined Wednesday 1st June 2011 15:50 GMT
Page:
Wait... wha...?!
'...while Oracle hinted at an appeal, saying it will “continue to defend and uphold Java’s core write-once, run-anywhere principle and ensure it is protected for the nine million Java developers and the community that depend on Java compatibility.”
Oracle are doing this for the Java developing community...? Did anyone from the Java developing community request this or perhaps tell Oracle "No, really, it's fine, you don't have to...."
Re: Wow, I think you noticed it...
Here's my experience:
Windows 95 pretty good
Windows 98 buggy unstable mess
Windows 98R2 was Decent
Windows ME sucked
Windows XP good
Windows Vista...
Ubuntu 6.04
OpenSUSE
Fedora
Ubuntu
Linux Mint
etc...
Deadlock
Surely now is the time to sieze the opportunity to register a 'design' patent on the graphical display of such a keyboard and force Apple's hand?!
Rightsholders?
I do some amatuer photography in my spare time, I blog occasionally, I write silly (unpublished) stories and occasionally upload crappy but original videos to YouTube.
By that definition I'm a rightsholder and so are trillions like me.
Why was I left out of the consultation about these proposals?!
Re: but it's not like Apple didn't know they were going to make an ithing5 is it.
Yeah, above all good software companies like to keep things consistent so there can be no confusion amongst their customers.
It's not like they named it iPhone 3.1, iPhone 95, iPhone 98, iPhone ME, iPhone NT, iPhone 2000, iPhone XP, iPhone Vista, iPhone 7, iPhone 8 etc...
So what's to stop...
Some big US business to purchase a new .europe TLD and simply undercut prices and undermine the registration of .eu entirely?
This whole business of money and litigation over domain names is ridiculous in the face of it. I can type stuff.com in a browser, I can type stuff.eu in a browser, I don't need any kind of visa or documentation before I can access the website.
Any website that has legitimate, interesting content or specialist product, is going to get the traffic anyway. Having a .eu or a .us or .anything is not going to drive you more traffic based on that - it will be based on links, which comes from word-of-mouth, instore advertising or viral. The TLD is completely irrelevant.
In any case, anyone who does attempt to find their special interest thing online who types in a .com address and doesn't find it, will simply try .co.uk, then .eu. With apologies for invoking a grating term, Cyberprotectionism is not really something that works in practice.
Re: Protectionism
So when youre in a situation like I'm involved in where a company is trying to setup in the US and migrate already employed officers over; so they can build a US presence and train and hire American workers, but your getting push back and visa denials from US immgration, that's a good thing is it?
Free trade benefits both sides, contrary to the fear and paranoia spread by American media. The US government just doesn't know how to follow the money, they only appeal to the lowest common denominator which is set by the afformentioned media.
Sure manufactoring should be afforded some protection but don't turn away entities that actually want to spend money in your economy.
Protectionism
Good to see protectionism is working then.
Own Worst Enemy
Sounds like Microsoft's own worst enemy is Microsoft. They should have gone ahead and split the company up like the original judge ordered in the anti-trust suit.
re: Changing to opendns...
OpenDNS has it's own customisable filter settings, you can access from your account. I think it's set to "Low" (spam, fraud etc...) by default and Pirate Bay might be in that category, but you can change it and create custom filters.
Re: If your work isn't distributed who will know that your gigs are worth paying to attend?
Indeed.
If only there was a way to not rely on these aggressive and slow distributors (who now own the rights to your works) and instead distribute your work fast, efficiently and without artificial release dates and geolocation locks...
If someone could just come up with the technology then you'd stand to gain a much wider audience who would be willing to attend your gigs!
That is... as long as you're any good.
Every time...
Every time a conent company shuts off a DRM server, a pirate gets their wings.
I've got a couple EA apps I own^H^H^H rent on my Android tablet... won't be giving them anymore cash.
Re: If nobody wants to pay you for it, it isn't a job.
I agree with this statement. I'm not perpetually being rewarded for the work I do today (which does involve coding) despite the fact my company and clients are going to benefit to the tune of hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
Perhaps art, music and other creative works need to revert back to the work-for-hire model, where performances are commissioned with a one-time payment, and then simply accepted as public domain from then on.
mp3 recordings should be treated with the same level of enforcement as photographs of museum pieces and public places, only really enforced on commercial use, not private. Then those in far off lands, who hear you via mp3 and want a public performance can commission you to travel and appear to perform it...
Now if only popular musicians could take advantage of this business model somehow?!
Re: Freetards in panic
Many freetards are already spending their own money on VPN services and membership of newsgroups. I think the problem here is availability of content (at the right price point) rather than wanting stuff for free. The free argument has been successfully rebutted many times already.
What I find incredulous is that big media companies complaining about how much money pirate sites make through advertising have failed to recognise a new business opportunity and get in on the game!
How many freetards would stop a downloaded TV episode that had a couple of advertisements tacked on the front, or even a commercial break in the middle? How many would go online to find an ad free one? Not many, they'd sit through or skip ahead like they do with legacy TV channels.
Why does big media continue to favor spending wads of cash on expensive lawyers, rather than embrace a new revenue stream? It's idiotic and arse-backwards.
As far as the block is concerned, I will have fun watching them trying to catch a swarm of bees with a thimble! Can't wait too see what their next comedic move will be.
Turn it into an advantage
I go to B&N often to browse and drink coffee. I don't often buy any books though, I flick through or read the back to decide if I should download a copy for my tablet.
Any bookstore like B&N need to take advantage of this physical presence - book people still like going into bookshops - just not buying. If the had an app that would let you scan the barcode right away and make the purchase whilst you're standing there in store I think they'd have a killer feature. Or maybe even a free digital copy with the physical purchase.
Imagine standing at the shelf, you like the book, instead of going home or going somewhere else and forgetting it, you scan the barcode and buy, then with the book downloaded, you go sit and drink coffee while you read it.
They could even implement a system whereby you can download previews of books whilst you're on their free wifi, causing more people to come and drink coffee there whilst reading free previews (and occasionally converting into a sale).
I'd hate to see B&N go the way of Borders, but whilst they still have the attention of physical customers (who are increasingly making digital purchases) they need to take a few risks and try to make digital purchases part of an 'experience', rather than a process.
Re: sigh
cyber-fascism, surely?
Re: its about time....
Oh look, a Microsoft software article, did you know you can subscribe to Technet?
Geez...
It's getting as a bad as every article about browsers. You know at some point during the comment thread that someone is going to post "Opera has been doing this for years, Opera really is the best, Why was Opera not mentioned? Opera is my browser and I use it everyday. Opera tastes like yummy honey on crumpets..."
Re: Surely all you need
Is documentary proof that the patent owner is actively taking steps to implement the designs outlined which could reasonably easily be established, you'd think.
Or perhaps then, a return to the original concept of patents, you had to actually present your working invention/innovation to have it patented?
The problem with that approach is that it also impacts genuine innovators who, for certain reasons (cost, limitations of current tech, etc) cannot, yet, implement their own innovation.
And the problem with calling anyone with an active imagination a "genuine innovator" is that it's simply protecting the "I thought of it first" mentality. Rather than protecting the person who also thinks of it (completely independently), but then puts time and money into actually building it.
Either you agree that someone can think ideas all day, invent nothing and profit from those who do, or you agree that those who invent get first shot at exploiting their invention.
If you genuinely have a great new idea, keep your mouth shut until you can afford to build it. Unless there are people who exist who can mind-read, if someone else comes up with the same idea independently and then puts the hard work in to create it - they deserve the credit that comes.
Of course then if so many people can come up with the same idea we step into 'non-obvious' territory, so perhaps what is needed is a separate class of patents called "idea-patents" or something like that - where people can register an idea with a central office.
Then if someone later innovates on an existing tech, the number of separate idea-patents that it crosses with are counted, if it is above a certain threshold (many people had the same 'idea') then it gets dismissed as too obvious.
Several steps...
My plan for the perfect punishment would be bore out over several steps involving a modicum of brainwashing and conditioning:
Step 1) Give them all iPhones
Step 2) Release hundreds of exclusive prisoner-only apps and foster a social culture of latte-sipping, photo-sharing and down-nose looking
Step 3) Force them to watch as their exclusive prisoner-only apps are opened up to the general iPhone Appstore
Step 4) Force them to endure further humiliation and suffering as the apps are then ported to Android
Step 5) Repeat steps 1-4
The only thing that surprises me...
Is that the teacher didn't pull out a 9mm and blow the little tyke away and claim self-defense under Indiana's 'stand your ground' law.
'...make the internet a "more hostile" place for terrorists.'
Going to be very difficult to achieve that without making it a more hostile place for everyone else too.
Re: My view
Lately I've just been wondering if I should post a copyright take-down notice every time I see someone shared a photo, video or quote on Facebook. Since it's based in the US, I can use a DMCA request.
You might argue of course, that I'd be filing false DMCA requests and liable for perjury and legal repercussions... to which I'd reply "don't make me laugh!"*
*that's the punchline by the way - that people who file false DMCA requests face legal repercussions.
Re: the problem with economics is
At the moment we have rising unemployment but interest rates are low, if they rise the situation will get really bad, remember the recession in the 80's with mortgages at 14% ?
But those mortgages were capped at 3.5 times income and house prices at healthy sane affordable levels. The spectacular bust in house prices we saw recently can be squarely blamed on lowering interest rates (look you can now afford to borrow MORE!); increased mortgage cap (6x income); lax regulations (self-cert anyone?); my-house-should-be-worth-double-now sellers; shared-ownership schemes (all the cons of ownership + all the cons of renting)... I could go on.
Which would you prefer? A huge loan and tiny interest paid off over 30 years, or a small loan, high interest paid off over 15 years - because I can tell you which is the cheapest one and I'll give you a hint: It's not the one that stays with for 3 decades.
re: your arse
Actually my tablet has become my primary device at home...
Since I spend most of the day looking at a screen and bits of code, many nights when I get home I don't even want to fire up my laptop - but I do want to catch up on news, check email, play a quick game to wind down.
I used to boot up my laptop, then later a netbook to do that. Trouble is if it's just one news article I wanted to finish reading, or one email I want to respond to, I'd have to go to the desk/table or find a comfortable place to sit; then wait to boot up; then fire up an app or log into the browser. Then maybe I have to leave it plugged in all night if I'm waiting for a response or something.
Nowadays, 80% of the time I don't need the laptop/netbook. I can read that one article and put it down, pick up later to get that email response, and move around to the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, doing what I need to do in each room whilst reading. I can also move around whilst video calling. I can show the wife my hotel room and view from the window easily.
Sure there's the phone for that, but it can get fiddly and a large screen is more immersive. I find some things work better on the phone and some work better on the tablet.
The only reason I have a laptop is work purposes really. If I was in a 9-5 fixed location job, I'd have a desktop and a tablet and that would be it.
Re: The Two faces of journalism
There are critical differences between a leak and a hack.
Besides the expenses leak was not just in the public interest, it was in the public's right to know - being the footer of the bills.
Heather Brooke - the original FOI submitter and journalist at the center has written a superb book covering the travesty of how successive UK governments have tried to keep the public in the dark - only to be completely blindsided by the emergence of the internet and FOI laws.
Putting 2 screens together
Does this mean I can patent my innovative idea of tacking a touchscreen monitor onto the side of a normal PC flatscreen monitor and sue for $MEGA when someone inevitably does it...?
Re: "Hi, I'm going to skype you..."
LOL. Sounds like when I need to Skype my mum - and she's on the computer client..!
Confusing corporations with people again!
My thoughts are corporates only get in on the game when a social network or blogging service turns popular amongst the great unwashed.
If you're so popular that corporate entities are taking advantage of your service to try and reach wallet^H^H^H^H^H^Haudiences, why not charge corporates to use your network and be done with it?
Re: Mind numbingly simple
Well let's just I happened to be 100 yards away from you on a rooftop with my own precision rifle. I can't see the guy with the machine gun but I can see you sitting there with a scoped rifle about to shoot someone down below... what then?
That's the problem with these 'shoot-first' self-defense laws as exhibited in Florida currently. At what point do you draw the line between standing your ground against someone standing their ground? At what point are you qualified to judge a 'suspicious' person is guilty of committing a crime and it's your place to stop them?
Anyway the discussion was about the death penalty, not hypothetical life or death situations - in this case what to do about the man who already slaughtered those people with his machine gun.
Sadly no matter what punishment is done to him, that's not going to resurrect those people and history shows, it's not going to prevent similar future incidents either. Perhaps there are other useful ways he could be made to compensate?
Trojan Amendments
Protest from a clued up tech community can be effective, but it's still only a minority compared to mainstream ignorance and/or apathy.
When I think of what's needed to get these mainstream people to actually understand what is wrong with some of these laws the government tries to introduce, I think protest is the wrong way to go about it.
What the tech community instead should do is lobby some of these politicians to insert some last minute overnight amendments like all the proposed legislation also retroactively applies to mail/vehicles/homes.
Then the bill either gets dropped or vetoed because it's unpalatable, or the bill gets passed and mainstream get literal taste of what the tech community has only been able to express in analogy up until that point.
Re: clothes off too!
Obviously, they shouldn't have asked him to reveal his concealed weapon...
Unbeatable vs Unlimited
Unbeatable = misleading
Unlimited = must be achievable by at least 10% of users
OK, Got it!
Not that either word can be prevented from use, given that the ASA is merely an efficient self-regulatory arm of the ad industry and doesn't actually have any government sanctioned dentures.
Fucking Light!
There once was a town called Fucking
Whose name the town thought of bucking
To stop the Inselaffe
Getting the final laugh
But the tourists are no longer good looking!
Re: re: Wankdorf
There's also a Wankvillage in Switzerland.
iBabysitter
Is this not akin to taking your child to the supermarket, telling them they can go and pick one toy; but because you can't be bothered to go to the toy department with them (and don't know how much the toys are worth) you hand over your wallet and send them off whilst you do the shopping?
Then when you find little Johnny/Janice has spent $500 on toys, you sue the supermarket.
Here's a parenting tip, try spending some time with your child at play, supervise their use of the phone/tablet. If you don't have time and need to leave them alone then give them some paper and crayons, a lego project, or some physical game or activity to do - until you do have the time - to play together on the shiny.
Guess what, children have great imagination! They'll make a spaceship or a robot out of a cardboard box (my nephew's latest creation). It could be argued that babysitting them with an iPhone causes them to lose that imagination, instead training them to be nothing more than good little wallets.
For all those infuriated iParents commenting on this thread, I have no idea how you were raised but I was raised in a time when mobile phones were only a sparkle in Martin Cooper's eye. I survived on my imagination and so will your little fart.
But what do I know, I don't have kids so I don't have the parenting certificate that pops out with the placenta.
Re: The problem is...
Thanks for that insight, it clears a few things up.
So am I to understand that a company that has no interest in making mobile phones or competing in that market, would not license what is essentially a free platform on desktop computer - but is now suing a company that has used it to create something brilliant that the original creators did not foresee or intend?
JavaME licensing appears to be the crux of Oracle's vexatious litigation. Larry has noticed that ever more powerful smartphones make things like JavaME obsolete. As smartphones catch up and even surpass some desktops in power and functionality; it's only natural evolution that JavaSE would be desired over something that belongs in a museum.
The real question here should be "what is a computer?" The smartphone in my pocket is now more powerful and functional than several previous desktop and laptop computers I have owned in the past.
Is it the ability to make calls and SMS? Both laptops and desktops are now capable of that - though they are not as convenient to carry around.
Re: I'm not sure Microsoft's hands were trying to pull them back from the brink
Wasn't there some kind of PR statement where Elop said their goal was 3rd place in the phone market? Doesn't really inspire confidence does it? Leaping from a burning platform to a sinking platform.
Looking forward to the multitude of I-told-you-sos on El Reg forums when Nokia finally gets Borg'd by the Microsoft cube.
Nailed It!
Also, I think part of the problem, for middle men publishers/distributors, is a confusion over what their business model was about. They didn't sell music, they've never sold music, they're distributors. Taking a voice only available in one location, packaging and delivering it worldwide.
They provided distribution and advertising for the artist, in return they charge the receiver of music (and via loan to the artist) for the delivery. - in the same way that UPS charges for packaging and delivery of goods from a online store (the next industry in decline when 3d printing takes off).
The internet was a major gift to them but like Kodak, rather than embrace digital they tried to protect the old method of storing images.
Instead of finding ways to fulfil their business priority of distribution utilising the internet, they've hurt themselves by trying to artificially slow or stop such methods.
Thanks for the link...
Insightful reading, but it makes it sound as though Amazon was really just the facilitator to the greed and fear of the big 6 publishers.
But publishers aren't software companies. They just want to sell books. And so they outsourced the DRM to the ebook resellers. Including Amazon...
For AMZN, the big six insistence on DRM on ebooks was a windfall: it made the huge investment in the Kindle platform worthwhile, and by 2010 Amazon had come close to an 85% market share in the ebook sector...
So the publishers insisted on DRM - but forced the resellers (including Amazon) to implement it. When Amazon did, having the largest share of the eBook market effectively reverse locked-in the publishers (just as customers are locked-in).
Hoisted by their own petard it seems. Still it's nice to know that publishers suffer from own their stupid insistence on DRM as well as their customers.
Let's hope Stross is right and they see the error of their ways.
PR bullshit...
"HR 3523 would impose no new obligations on us to share data with anyone – and ensures that if we do share data about specific cyber threats, we are able to continue to safeguard our users’ private information, just as we do today,'"
So why do you need a new law if you're already doing it?
"They're not looking for some kid in the Dallas suburbs hacking into his school to change his grade,"
Not yet...
"courtroom-lurker Florian Mueller"
Hurray for rebranding!
Re: Collateral damage
Well if this case is anything to go by, they will impound your car, as well as all the other cars on the street. Then later state they no longer want or need your car but you can't have it back - instead it can be crushed.
Re: Anti-terror hotline
It's to report bearded people holding cameras, going by the poster campaign.
The public can remain confident...
"...in the ability to communicate in confidence and that the integrity of the Anti-Terrorist Hotline remains in place."
Also, we would like to confirm that the Emperor is still wearing his fine new clothes.
.word-squatters
I'm not impressed with corporations being allowed take ownership of generic terms such as 'drink', 'music' etc... .cocacola and .mafiaa are OK but this is like a reverse domain-squatting on written language itself.
In some cases it could lead to certain brands or companies inferring that they are the only regulator and provider of legitimate services, rather than just another competitor in a market.
Re: So...
Also, perhaps the inverse is true. If you hack servers of UK/US firms that are actually hosted in countries with less stringent enforcement and regulations in place you can attack them with impunity?
Hmm... thought not.
Re: Tasty
But still they come!
I'm thinking Moto is going for leverage.
If they can get a ban on MS in Germany, then it might cause MS to back off on trying to strong-arm Moto into a license agreement on their bogus Linux patents or even enter a MAD agreement.
Re: Not really thinking, are they?
I did not bother with eye-bleeding MySpace, went with FB instead. Then I went to Twitter when the MySpace refugees hit FB. I'm now on G+ (though I still use FB to keep in touch with the oldies).
I find I'm one of those types who tends to flee social networks when all the teens arrive so looks like I recently abandoned Twitter right on cue. What does category does that put me in?
re: The companies are all suing in force
It's called a cartel and it's supposed to be illegal, but of course because this is a 'copyright' issue then the modus operandi here can basically be ignored.
Copyright and patents... the 'think-of-the-children' cry for corporations.
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