Comment Re: They shat in their bed (Score 1) 98
What does it do when the content is dominated by ads served by Google?
AFAIK, it doesn't matter who serves the ads. It's a low-quality page.
What does it do when the content is dominated by ads served by Google?
AFAIK, it doesn't matter who serves the ads. It's a low-quality page.
Follow-up:
I asked claude.ai about this question and it agreed with the position that the GPL not only doesn't impose any obligation on the seller to the buyer, but actively disclaims any obligation (except the obligation to offer source code).
Claude was more thorough than I was, though, and actually looked up the details of the judge's tentative opinion and found that SFC's theory isn't that the obligation arises under the GPL, but that an implicit contract under California law was formed when Vizio's TV's License menu option offered the source code, and Paul Visscher accepted that offer through live chat with Vizio's tech support.
SFC's theory is that this offer and acceptance constitutes the formation of an enforceable contract under California law, and that the court can, therefore, order equitable relief, i.e. order Vizio to provide the source code.
This means the ruling isn't about the GPL at all, and also seems like a really reasonable argument that Vizio needs to cough up the source code to everything their license menu offered. The GPL's only role here is that it motivated Vizio to make the offer through the license menu.
By selling binary code to consumers, though, there's a contract between Vizio and the purchaser because the GPL says that the purchaser gains the same rights under the GPL as the seller, and that the seller is responsible for fulfilling those rights.
I don't see anything in the text of GPLv2 that says the seller is responsible for ensuring the buyer can exercise/fulfill those rights. It says the buyer has the rights, and it obligates the seller to distribute source code to the buyer, and it says if the seller is under some restriction that prevents them from complying with the terms of the license they may not distribute, but I don't see any obligation to ensure the buyer can exercise the rights separate from the obligation to distribute code to them. But I think that obligation is to the copyright holder, not to the buyer, which means we still have the issue that only the copyright holder has standing to sue.
Your suggestion that the seller be responsible for "fulfilling" the rights might have been a nice improvement to the GPL if it could be written so it achieved your goal of giving the buyer standing, and without creating unacceptably-broad obligations on the seller (a stupid and contrived example: What if the buyer were unable to exercise their right to modify the software because they don't know how to program? Is the seller obligated to train them, or make modifications for them?). I think this might be possible... but in any case it doesn't seem to be present.
If there's some part of the license text I'm missing or misunderstanding, please point it out.
What if you forked it and it is an exact copy of what they used, would that change your standing? Just theoretical for me.
That would have no effect on the fact that the owner of the copyright (which is the original author) is generally the only person that has standing to sue for infringement of that copyright. You would own whatever code you contributed, but since you're saying the result would be an exact duplicate, you apparently didn't contribute anything.
There may be a conflict of interest with Google directing traffic to websites that show ads.
Google's ranking algorithm downgrades sites where content is dominated by ads, so I think the dynamic here is the other way around: Recipe sites layered on huge numbers of ads in order to generate revenue, which caused their search ranking to drop, so then they had to go all-in on SEO to fool the ranking algorithm into raising their visibility.
The problem of LLMs is that they do not make a difference between data to be processed and instructions how to process the data.
The goal (not yet achieved, obviously) is to build AI that can learn how to interact with humans the way humans do, not to build machines that need carefully-curated data and instructions. We've had those for three quarters of a century now.
and the millions of shallow people who live through following the life of celebrities.
And, I'm sure, millions more who are cinephiles and really enjoy seeing which of the year's movies, actors, etc., are honored. It's stylish here on
Personally, I like it enough to check out who won the next day, but not enough to want to watch the show. My wife likes to watch it when there's a film she's particularly enthusiastic about and she doesn't have other things she needs to do. I know others who watch regularly, as well as follow the other major awards.
Show I don't watch will abandon Broadcast TV for streaming platform I don't use. I think it's safe to say that people over a certain age are never going to be watching the Oscars again because they won't know how to.
I think this decision will have the opposite effect. I don't know who it is that you think doesn't know how to use YouTube, but my 80 year-old parents watch it all the time, whereas broadcast TV like ABC is become less available in the places it was available, and there's a lot of the world that ABC never reached at all. On YouTube, most of the world will have access.
In practice what you do is you use the car's navigation system, and it tells you if you need to charge to get to your destination.
"and picks your charging stops", I should have added. On long trips it optimizes to minimize charging time, which typically translates to 2-3 hours of driving, then a 20-minute stop, then 2-3 hours of driving, repeat. The charging stops tend to align pretty well with bio-break needs.
Before leaving the charger, you can see your next charging stop and the expected arrival SoC (state of charge). Only an idiot would leave a charger without having enough battery. You can also choose to charge more and skip the next charger - for example, if youÃ(TM)re stopping for lunch.
Sounds like a pain in the ass to me.
It's really not.
In practice what you do is you use the car's navigation system, and it tells you if you need to charge to get to your destination. About the only manual planning I do on road trips is to think about where we'll be for meals and override the automatic charger selection to pick chargers in those places, and check the icons on the charge station to make sure there's food nearby. This is a minor annoyance, far more than offset by the fact that when I'm not on a road trip I never have to go to gas stations at all, and pay no attention at all to my "fuel" level.
With TCO it is cheaper to put there bigger battery and remove the ICE. But most of the new car buyers cannot calculate TCO and they care only about purchase price.
Well, you also have to consider the large number of people that do not have the capability to charge at home.
The best numbers I've been able to find put that number at about 25% of car owners. That is a large number of people, but it's not a good reason to hold up the EV transition. Such people will transition last, and only after public charging options are sufficient that they don't need charging at home (and after apartment complexes deploy charging infrastructure so more apartment-dwellers can charge at home).
Also, we need to help people understand all you really need for home charging is a standard 120V outlet from which you can safely run an extension cord to your car. L1 charging will add ~40 miles of range every night, so unless you drive more than ~280 miles per week (14,600 miles per year), L1 is enough. Access to some public charging is also required, to deal with exceptional circumstances, but it can be rare and used only for getting a 15-minute quick charge when the battery is low. L2 is nicer, of course, but it's not the minimum requirement most people think it is. L2 at home enables you to pretty much just forget about charging/fueling ever in your daily life. It's a significant improvement over having to deal with gas stations, so people want it... but it's not a necessity.
We need to avoid all-or-nothing thinking. It will likely be the case for quite some time that people with unusual requirements have to stick with fossil-fuel vehicles. If there are legal electrification requirements they need to have an exception process.
I actually don't think we need legal electrification requirements, myself. If we put a reasonable carbon tax on fossil fuels (calibrated based on our best assessment of the future cost of mitigating the warming that will be caused by burning the fuel) to internalize that externality and if we drop trade barriers that block the purchase of cheap EVs manufactured in China, the transition will happen on its own for purely economic reasons. It'll probably happen even without those steps, but they would make it happen a lot faster.
For that matter, I think we don't even need to impose the carbon taxes and tariffs, just pass them. Phase them in over a decade, so people know they're coming, and people will begin making the change even before they take effect.
Very good analysis. And he did modulate some rather draconian "bathroom bills." I can't help but wonder how many Democrats are actually registered as GOP so they can help keep him in office!! - past the "caucus system"!
Heh. I am, kind of. I'm not only a registered Republican, I'm a precinct officer. I've historically always voted Republican but got active in the party in 2016 to do what I could to undercut Trump and Trumpism. I remain active for that reason. I do not consider myself a Democrat but I have been voting straight-ticket Dem since 2018[*] and will as long as Trumpism controls the GOP, while taking what opportunities I can to argue against Trumpism from the inside of the party. Of course, it's vanishingly unlikely that I'll ever get elected to caucus above the county level, not unless I lie about my positions, which I won't do.
[*] In 2016 I voted for McMullin, on the slender thread of a hope that there would be an EC tie between Clinton and Trump and the GOP-controlled House would look for a third path since the GOP establishment really did not like Trump back then.
Employers need to accept that they have to train and develop people they take on. Grades should be an indication of ability to learn.
Somewhat. I think it's reasonable for an employer hiring a person with a degree to assume they come with a significant amount of knowledge in their degree field. But, beyond that, sure. I'm confused as to why you felt the need to post this reply, though, since I never claimed otherwise.
Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.