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

No - BIOS is specifically a Basic Input Output System.
OS is specifically an Operating System

An OS is an abstraction written to provide an interface between applications and hardware. It is specifically designed to manage memory, disk, devices, and the loading/unloading of applications. It is typically refereed to in simple terms as the "traffic cop".

OS-less platform is relying on code to be compiled to interface directly with the hardware. There is no abstraction level. There are no C libraries that can be linked together, because there is no OS to link and load models.

You can get away with this "in the cloud" because there are no hardware interfaces that need to be directly accessed. There is simply memory management which the application will be responsible for, and some sort general IO.

You are essentially programming a virtual micro controller - which just happens to have a boat-load of memory space.

-CF

That Google choose what is pretty much the geographic center of the (continental) US to start this endeavor.

From Kansas City,
1500 miles to Google (Pacific ocean)
1000 miles to Atlantic ocean
660 miles to Canada
660 miles to Gulf of Mexico

And is uniquely situated, split between Kansas and Missouri.

Really does make for a great statement to grow the broadband infrastructure from the center out.

...consumers refuse to buy.

But you (consumer you) have bought Blue Ray devices, you've consumed from the Apple walled garden, you've bought into Microsoft, you've spent money on Sony Products, you gave EA a couple of bucks... you suck.

You have supported the DRM pushers - and no - you didn't have to. You could have gone without. But instead you consumers choose to bend over backwards.

So stop your f'in Bellyaching and own up to the fact that DRM is your own fault.

God damn you.

-CF