Pirates, Web 2.0, and Hundred Dollar Laptop 339
Update on the One Laptop per Child Project. dominique_cimafranca writes "Ethan Zuckerman gives a report on his visit to the headquarters of the One Laptop per Child project. Some details on practical design considerations such as the hinge, the rabbit ears, and why the hand crank was ultimately left out (apparently, Kofi Annan broke the crank on a prototype). Several pictures, and a look at the motherboard of the OLPC laptop."
TOR Calls Out Torvalds, Stallman on Web 2.0. theodp writes "In an unusual defense of partner CMP's trademarking of Web 2.0, Tim O'Reilly points a finger at Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman in his rebuttal posts. TOR also says the blogger who posted the O'Reilly-approved cease-and-desist letter from CMP 'owes us an apology for the way he responded' (he got one)."
Fallout from The Pirate Bay Raid. Tyler Too writes "The Swedish national police website has been taken offline by a denial of service attack which started Thursday night. That's not the only fallout from the raid on The Pirate Bay: there's a demonstration planned in Stockholm on Saturday."
U.S. Government Ordered The Pirate Bay Shutdown? mkro writes "According to the Swedish government sponsored tv channel SVT, U.S. government officials -- after being approached by the MPAA -- requested the Swedish justice department to take down The Pirate Bay. According to the story, the Swedish justice department asked police and prosecution to act, but when they explained the laws are too vague, they turned directly to the state attorney and the chief of the national police force."
TOR Versus Tim O'Reilly (Score:2, Insightful)
It only took a second or two for me to figure out you weren't talking about EFF, but it was still annoying.
My Government is POISON to the rest of the world! (Score:4, Insightful)
It's time other nations started to shun the US even more than they already do. Perhaps then some sort of balance could come from this. The next bout of elections will not come soon enough but even then I'm unsure of how much damage will be reversed.
Tom Raftery blogged about the Web 2.0 fiasco (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:My Government is POISON to the rest of the worl (Score:5, Insightful)
Brilliant Move (Score:5, Insightful)
Because nothing increases support for your cause like DoSing a police website...
SciFi Vs OSS, oh noes! (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, I have never heard any one abbreviate Tim O'Reilly TOR.
Re:My Government is POISON to the rest of the worl (Score:3, Insightful)
Because the concepts of intellectual property and copyright were invented by the US, and the only people who benefit from those concepts are Americans (it's funny that you are actually implying that Americans are the only ones who produce decent intellectual property).
I think that, for starters, the US should be excommunicated from the U.N. and N.A.T.O. alliances for their behavior.
The US is supposed to pay 1/4 of the UN's expenses, and they get what in return? I don't think they'd mind all that much. As for NATO, the US provides almost all the logistical support for most NATO missions; it would be quite funny to see NATO try to operate without the US. Considering how and why NATO was formed, it would also be quite humorous to see the US kicked out of that one.
Re:My thoughts... (Score:1, Insightful)
Slashdot Leftism In A Nutshell (Score:1, Insightful)
I realize there's a lot of US haters on this site, but this comment rated "insightful" really sums up the lunacy here.
Not that the US is perfect, but it is far better anybody here would like to give credit for. It's really sad too that these hateful comments are coming from self-hating Americans.
Re:Zero point energy (Score:5, Insightful)
Thus, I must assume that the blog is a general description of the product specifications, not a detailed, technical presentation. (My apologies if I am wrong.)
That said, the portion you cited is an acceptable simplification of the actual product specs, when the target audience is non-techincal. It may have been more accurate to say the following:
"The current prototype accepts input voltages from 2.25 to 23 Volts, including sources with high noise components. It can also correct for inverted supply inputs, allowing it to effectively support -2.25 to -23 Volts."
However, a non-technical person (perhaps even just a non-electrical engineer) would get little to no additional information from my quote than from his. Why should he write overly-complicated blog posts above the technical comprehension level of his intended audience?
Again, I cannot verify the blog post's intended audience, as I cannot access it. However, this is not the first time I've seen people on Slashdot react to non-technical writing by technical people, and attack those people for that writing. Instead of doing this, the correct response is to examine both the writer and his intended audience. If people on Slashdot are not the intended audience of the post, then the Slashdot reader should judge the technical level as the intended reader would, not as he or she does.
Re:My Government is POISON to the rest of the worl (Score:1, Insightful)
The US is supposed to pay 1/4 of the UN's expenses, and they get what in return?
Supposed to, sure. But they don't pay their bills, do they? The USA is currently hundreds of millions of dollars in arrears.
And for wha it's worth, the point of the United Nations is not to allow countries like the USA to buy influence. It's to prevent war. Of course, it can't do its job very well if one of its most powerful members stops paying their bills, ignores their rulings and invades other countries. But go ahead and blame the UN for failing to stop the USA, since that is what the USA is supposed to be "buying" - prevention of war.
Re:My Government is POISON to the rest of the worl (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact is the US pressured another government to take down a site that was LEGAL in the country it was in.
MOD PARENT DOWN, and RTFA (Score:3, Insightful)
2.
MediaLive filed for the trademark on the Web 2.0 Conference back in November 2003, when they first entered into the partnership agreement with O'Reilly on this conference. This was before Web 2.0 became such a popular term -- the filing actually preceded the first conference. However, I wasn't personally aware of this trademark filing till this past February, as a result of discussions with CMP after the MediaLive purchase.
Next, is the issue of proportional response. O'Reilly as an INSTUTION apologized for the gaff that resulted in sending this man a C&D. The shit storm that resulted from his blog, and then the rest of the half-cocked idiots such as parent post was not warranted, accurately sourced, or anything more than mis-reported hearsay. Please, for the love of mike, READ before posting. The apology issued to O'Reilly was justified.
Finally, if you'd read the other comments before posting, no finger pointing has taken place. O'Reilly CITES Torvolds and others as examples of trademark holders who also want to protect their trademarks. Again, if parent post had RTFA (s)he'd know that. But parent post clearly did not.
Re:My Government is POISON to the rest of the worl (Score:1, Insightful)
Please do not lump everyone with the idiot gasbags that currently run it.
Who are the idiot gasbags running it for? The USA is still pretending to be a democratic republic, isn't it? Then the idiot gasbags are running it on your behalf, with your authority, assuming you are a USA citizen with the power to vote.
Only lump the idiot gasbags with the idiot lemmings who still support them.
Paid taxes lately? Then you are directly paying for crap like this, and, therefore, one of the idiot lemmings that supports them.
Re:tpb (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:100$ laptop = hype city (Score:4, Insightful)
If you were to follow the project (or just think about it for a few minutes) then you would realize the point of this thing. There is no Windows requirement. It doesn't have tons of moving parts (like a hard drive) or generate tons of heat (which requires a fan to cool) or have a 1 1/2 hour battery life. It is designed to be RUGGED, last a LONG TIME, and be VERY energy efficient.
A $300 laptop you buy at Best Buy won't fit those criteria. It will break down easy. It will suck energy. You won't be able to run it by powering it with a foot pedal, it will need too much energy. It won't run well in sub-Saharan Africa due to the heat and the dust and sand and whatever. It doesn't weight just a little bit, it weighs 6-8 pounds. It doesn't have a easy cary handle.
Yep, that $300 laptop you talk about would easily work.
Re:The US people don't elect the President (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:My Government is POISON to the rest of the worl (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:My Government is POISON to the rest of the worl (Score:3, Insightful)
The travesty of this situation is not what the US did, but what Swedenish politicians did (if early reports are to be believed). Many nations bitch to the US all the time about hosting web sites that are illegal and the US merrily ignores them. The US in turn gives China crap about the websites that they take down and China merrily ignores the US. Governments leaning on other governments to enforce their values is pretty normal. Hell, I expect my government to try and nudge other governments to hold similar values through diplomatic means.
The real crime here is if the Swedish authorities bent to US pressure; or more specifically, if Swedish politicians bent to US pressure and in turn pressured Swedish law enforcement agencies to take an illegal action.. The crime is not the US trying to get the Swedish authorities to take action. The crime is that the Swedish authorities responded illegally to pressure from another nation.
I am not saying I am a fan of US copyright law. US copyright law in fact sucks mightily. That said, I am far more worried that another nation's politicians would cave into US pressure and order their police to enforce a law that doesn't exist and Sweden.
Re:My Government is POISON to the rest of the worl (Score:4, Insightful)
They don't have that many friends either! Apart from the UK and even thats restricted to Mr Blair. The population / Media here in the UK are very critical of Tony Blair and Gerorgy Bush's close "Relationship". Often it's the butt of jokes.
America would find it very hard to embargo (blockade) Sweden because it's illegal to prevent free trade between EU member nations. Sweden will just import goods via another EU country. America would have to cut trade with the whole of the EU. I don't see that winning many friends.
Yes and now Iraq is in turmoil to the point of near civil war. Al-Qaeda now has a new base of operation (Saddam as brutal as he was, was no friend of Osama). The Muslim world is enraged at the West making the world a far more dangerous place and the US has left itself impotent in the face of Iran's Weapons program.
Either you are ignorant of world affairs. A Republican with a Nationalist complex or I've just fed a troll. Either way your statements are so far from reality they can't even see it.