Developers -

You HAVE to flip the tables on MS and every other platform. Don't even think about paying a dime to be "published" or "licensed". If your product is worth anything - the demand will be there. Make MS, Sony, ETC come to you - NOT vice-versa.

MS charging a fee to "reach" their customers is no different than Comcast trying to force Google, etc to reach Internet surfers who connect with Comcast.

YOU (developers) are the ones in demand - act like it. The only reason to play the game-maker hoop game is because your product sucks and you're just trying to ride coat-tails.

-CF

How can a "lie" cause "tremendous damage to the country'?

If it were a lie, the NSA would have given the default "We can neither confirm nor deny" answer. The fact that it has upset so many people is pretty clear indication that he is nearly (if not entirely) spot-on. Calling this a "lie" is spin.

US government spying on American citizens was (re)confirmed in the American consciences in 2002 when the AT&T sysAdim broke the news that AT&T was cooperating with the NSA (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/what-an-nsa-domestic-spying-operation-looks-like/). As far as the US citizenry goes... this is old news.

I'm not buying the "damage" to the US thing. If 80% of Americans already believe that the government is spying on them, then why is it even a secret that Verizon was asked to continue the process? What exactly is damaged?

What's damaged is not that Terrorist may now change their MO. It's that the American People might get upset. It will bring more scrutiny to the process. That's not damage to the US - it's damage to the spy operation. And those two things should be weighed independently.

-CF

The irony is that the group most likely to defend the 2nd Amendment left the barn-door open on the 1st and 4th amendment.

So while we'll be able to retain our guns to "protect our Freedom from the tyranny of the Government" the guns are worthless as the Government will simply do as they please with you in secure private setting. No one will hear you scream as you fire off your 60-round 3D printed AR15. The Government will wait till your magazine is out and you'll never be heard from again.

2nd Amendment protects YOU. 1st and 4th Amendment protects US. In terms of the longevity of the country, which is more important?

*We* gave up our Freedom on 9/11 in the guise of protecting us from Terrorist.

-CF

Everyone who is bitching about this must do the following:

1. Pick up the phone, call AT&T and voice your displeasure about the surcharge.
2. Tell the attendant that you will be leaving AT&T
3. Find a new service provider
4. Switch to new service provider
5. Use social networking/blogging to call out AT&T, explain what you did and who you went with - and repeat this message.

They will continue to do it as long as they get away with it. If it hits them financially they will back off. YOU have the power. Don't believe otherwise.

-CF

"..No one can do proper research or development until there is a constructive definition of what intelligence actually is..."

That's a fool's errand. The goal of the developer should be to build a system that accomplishes tasks and is able to auto-improve the speed of accomplishing repetitive tasks with minimal (no) human intervention.

The goal of the philosopher is to lay out what intelligence "is". These tracks should be run in parallel and the progress of one should have little-to-no impact on the progress of the other.

-CF

"I like beaver. Can you tell me where to get some tail?"

"I like cats. Where can I pick one up?"

Let me know when AI can understand the difference between the preceding sentences.

-CF

I think I just blue myself

Computer Nerds are a large part of the Arrested Development "cult" and every mention of the show/movie is considered news.

-CF

That is wrong.

Many Practice Management Systems are also responsible for billing - which is typically done through the Internet. If they need send records to an orthodontist or other 3rd party provider, then the sharing of medical records through an HL7 interface is necessary as well.

You don't see the problem because you don't want a problem to be there. Think larger.

-CF

IF Microsoft was just Windows and Word/Office then the call of their demise would be appropriate. IF they were only tied to desktop/laptop machines, then they would be in a world of hurt.

MS will be the King of the desktop all the way down to the time the last desktop is sold. That will be the end of Windows and maybe Office, but it won't be the end of MS.

MS's monopoly will continue to weaken, but with Billions in the bank and more in assets the Company will persist - barring any illegal activities.

However it's relevance with concerns of /. will weaken.

-CF

I am still trying to figure out why the angry cheerleader triggers a "grotesque" response from me. It's kind-of like something from Uncanny Valley. All the parts are there... it's just not quite right.

-CF

No fricken duh.

Stop the bitching, moaning and complaining. Vote with your dollars or buck up.

-CF

See Monsanto rulings...

Yes - they did but the conditions are different.

Property is owned by the State, Governed by the Feds, and leased to individuals(tax). This is written into the Constitution.

Fifth Amendment of Bill of Rights:

"....nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. "

"Just compensation" allows for private property to be taken for public use... You may not agree with the terms, but the law is pretty clear. Who determines what "just compensation" ? The state.

-CF

Actually there are tone of them. Infocom games used this method extensively. Happily (for them) it was a bit of a primitive DRM as they could write to disk where the typical DOS could not natively read from. You could not simply copy the disk to your hard-drive and expect to have a file you could execute.

The BIOS reads the disk and kick-starts the app. From there the compiled code is working directly with hardware registers - not an OS level abstraction.

Early graphics were like this because early OS had no way to natively support graphics. The early Kings Quest/Space Quest was very much like this. So you were stuck reading to and writing from graphic card memory and coding registers (assembly language) separate from the normal processor you were trying to target. It was pretty messy.

Just to give an idea of how close it was to the hardware, going from a PCjr to a PC 8086 to a PC80286 could easily result in needing 3 separate binary images to work.

-CF