Slashback: Oklahoma Spyware, FSF DRM, Lenovo Linux 135
Oklahoma's Spyware Bill dies a quiet death. enforcer999 writes to tell us that the Oklahoma Computer Spyware Protection Act has been pretty much dismantled by the Senate review committee. From the article: "Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, the Senate author of the legislation, said revisions he had made to the bill were well received by those who had originally opposed it, but that after making the changes, the companies backing the measure -- which had included Microsoft and Symantec Corp. -- opposed it."
Lenovo denies ditching Linux. btornado writes "According to News.com, Lenovo has denied ditching Linux on their notebook computers. Lenovo actually plans to support Linux on its ThinkPads starting in the third quarter, in partnership with Novell. From the article: 'Customers of the recently introduced Lenovo 3000 units still won't have a preloaded option, however, because the small and midsize business customers that are the targets for those units have many different requirements, he said.'"
Mars rover escapes again. An anonymous reader writes "New Scientist is reporting that NASA's Mars Opportunity rover has freed itself from the sandy soil that ensnared it for more than a week. This is the second time the rover has gotten bogged down in a Martian sand trap. Both times, the rover has managed to escape to solid bedrock by churning its wheels in reverse."
RIM CEO speaks out against unlimited wireless. frdmfghtr writes "The president and co-CEO of Research in Motion seems to think that wireless data services providing unlimited data traffic for a flat monthly rate will have a 'devastating effect on wireless innovation.' From the article: '"No matter how you slice it, bandwidth is not free," he said. "If we don't set up economic incentives now, research and innovation for new networks won't happen for the future. We want companies to be encouraged to make efficient use of the network, so we don't cross over and use up all the capacity of the networks." Counters Jeff Pulver, the founder of Pulver Media, saying that (FTA) "unlimited bandwidth use in the wireless world is needed because access to the network is what spurs innovation."'"
Microsoft LiveMail gets ads. Blahbooboo3 writes to tell us BetaNews is reporting that Microsoft will be embedding advertising in their new e-mail client software, Windows Live Mail Desktop. Similar to Google's Gmail, it will serve ads based on the text of your mail messages. Microsoft's Active Search feature, being tested within Windows Live Mail Desktop, scans users' emails and displays potential search terms related to that email as well as text-based contextual ads. The effort is an example of the Windows Live ad-supported software initiative. Contextually relevant ads served by Microsoft-partner Kanoodle will be displayed next to each email message. Also, paid search links will be served by Microsoft adCenter when users conduct searches via a search box that's built into the mail interface.
FSF anti-DRM campaign expands. nanday writes "According to an article on Newsforge (Also owned by VA), the Free Software Foundation's Defective by Design campaign against Digital Rights Management expanded on Saturday, targeting Apple Stores in eight American cities. However, unlike the event outside WinHEC 2006 two weeks ago, this time the police and security guards were waiting when campaign volunteers arrived to demonstrate."
AT&:T calls Wired to task over leaked documents. John Young writes to tell us that AT&T is standing in opposition [PDF] to Wired's recent intervention and the unsealing of documents. AT&T stated that "Wired argues that it has a 'unique perspective in this case.' If that is anything other than hot air, it is a reference to the fact that Wired has leaked eight pages of what it claims are AT&T Proprietary documents--and did so despite actual knowledge that AT&T claims its documents contain trade secrets and the Court had ordered that such documents remain under seal. A 'unique perspective' indeed--that of the scofflaw. [...] Wired maintains that the Klein and Marcus Declarations should be unsealed in their entirety because "the course of events has overtaken the sealing order." The "course of events" to which Wired refers is, of course, its own leaking of subsets of the information that the Court ordered remain under seal. Wired's argument appears to be that because it has openly chosen to disregard the Court's order (not to mention AT&T's rights) the Court should reverse that order. Talk about chutzpah."
Unlimited wireless bad? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Unlimited wireless bad? (Score:5, Informative)
Wholesale bandwidth (what an ISP or hosting facility buys) is still sold by the bit. It's only at the retail level (ISP customers and some hosting plans) where there's no limit.
Uh, no. (Score:4, Informative)
(The closest I've ever seen to a pay-per-packet scheme was the old Packet Switch Stream service from British Telecom, which charged per connection to the X.25 exchange AND per minute of connection AND per K of data sent AND per unit of time you spent on the phone line to use their bloody server in the first place. Sure, there's a per-K in there, but it was so small as to be a negliagible fraction of the total cost. And that WAS to end-users, so even there the claim is incorrect.)
Peer-to-Peer backbone routing is usually at a nominal cost, as the whole idea of peering is that each network accesses the other networks equally in all directions with no bias or preference. Of course, if the preferential service system goes into effect, the entire backbone will collapse. It's impossible to have preferential service in a totally peer-based network.
Re:Uh, no. (Score:3, Informative)
(I should have added a link to that) (Score:2)
US data market is different (Score:2)
Fractional T3 (except for NxT1) isn't a realistic concept either, because there aren't standards for it that are comparable to Fractional T1. Again, some carriers do things with muxes to derive NxT1 from a T3, but that's not really fractional T3, or they do Frame Relay or ATM to get intermediate speeds.
A very common pricing struc
Re:US data market is different (Score:2)
Re:US data market is different (Score:2)
The T1/T2/T3/T4 bundling was fairly similar to the analog transmission hierarchy that we used before getting
Re:Uh, no. (Score:2)
Having said that, since they use the standards internally, and since they are mandated under law to open up their COs (other than the optic fibre) to
Re:Uh, no. (Score:2)
Re:Uh, no. (Score:2)
Re:Unlimited wireless bad? (Score:3, Interesting)
They have a flat rate plan and a flexible rate plan. In the flexible rate plan you pay less for speed (good for users who use internet sparingly and don't want to wait when they finally do) and in the flat rate plan they pay more for speed, but they can get as many gigs a month as they want.
The way I see it, this makes planning infrastructure much easier. A
Trust the industry, the industry knows best! (Score:2, Funny)
Jack Valenti, Home Recording of Copyrighted Works, Committee on the Judiciary, United States House of Representatives, April 12, 1982
Now look at all the money lost by the Hollywood studios in the 90's. Video recorders cleaned them out, I tell you. And the DVD nailed their coffin shut. All this is the reason we have no Movie/Recording industry in the US today.
Re:Trust the industry, the industry knows best! (Score:2)
People who use VCRs aren't pirates. They're, they're... they're rapists! Raping us of all our money!
Re:Unlimited wireless bad? (Score:2)
Re:Unlimited wireless bad? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Unlimited wireless bad? (Score:1)
Yes, but at some point you have to convert that air-borne signal into bits on the wire, which means investing in circuits, peering points, etc. Go price the cost of a dark circuit, such as a point to point DS/3. Then go price the cost of a DS/3 with IP though an ISP. The majority of the cost is the IP access.
Re:Unlimited wireless bad? (Score:2)
Re:Unlimited wireless bad? (Score:2)
is conjecture based on things I heard. I used to work
at a company that did a blackberry app. I did not work in
the group doing the Blackberry client ( we did an
app for the old blackberries, not the same as the
email client they come with natively ), nor the
server side, but I did work with them. My understanding
is that the network that the blackberry traffic was
going over was very limited in bandwidth. That team
was having to be very stingy in how they used
an
Oklahoma Priorities (Score:5, Interesting)
Glad to know they have their priorities straight.
Re:Oklahoma Priorities (Score:2)
Re:Oklahoma Priorities (Score:2)
Re:Oklahoma Priorities (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Oklahoma Priorities (Score:2)
Geeksquad... (Score:2)
Re:Oklahoma Priorities (Score:2)
Part of the issue is "what is spyware"?
Once a week, my Mac tells Apple about all the versions of Apple-branded software on my computer so that Apple can check to see whether my software is up-to-date. Is that spyware? Well, yes it is. On the other hand, I approve of that kind of action.
Needless to say, corporations don't like the idea of somebody defining "spyware" because they might inadvertently trip over it. You might have to ex
Re:Oklahoma Priorities (Score:2, Insightful)
But it is possible to have the server tell the client what the latest versions are released and the client-side update application can decide to download it (think just about all linux updaters (apt-get, yum, portage, etc). These corporations choose to collect thi
Re:Oklahoma Priorities (Score:2)
Re:Oklahoma Priorities (Score:2)
REMEBER TUTTLE!
AT&T (Score:2, Funny)
Dooh! Damn shift key.
Re:AT&T (Score:1)
To sum up Wired's circular arguement:
"No, Your Honor, I did not rape that minor. I was nowhere near there that night, I never even met her, she told me she was 18, and the sex was consentual."
Unlimited data plans... (Score:5, Insightful)
I went with T-mobile for two reasons. 1) They are the only carrier that has a viable portable device for Internet connectivity and 2) They have an unlimited data plan at a flat rate $20.00 with T-mobile mobile phone service or $29.99 without.
To claim that this somehow creates problems with innovation is insane! Hell, I certainly would NOT be paying per MB charges and I'm sure that many others would agree. People in the US are too used to "unlimited" connections (from the dialup days through today). Per MB/GB transfer charges would fall flat on their faces in areas with competition. Luckily, in the mobile market, there's plenty of that.
Re:Unlimited data plans... (Score:2)
Unstoppable Opportunity (Score:1)
Re:Unstoppable Opportunity (Score:2)
Re:Unstoppable Opportunity (Score:2)
So the only way to stop it is to drop it into a vat full of molten steel. Good to know -- it should be pretty safe on Mars!
Re:Unstoppable Opportunity (Score:2)
Slow action on spyware and spam (Score:3, Interesting)
We should be able to surf the net without risk of being hijacked and we should be able to run websites and forums without copping spam each and every day. If you run a web-based business or a bunch of websites, dealing with spam can quickly become a significant headache that chews valuable time.
For how long have spam and spyware been real issues for real internet users without strong action from those who could be increasing penalties and tracking these scum down?
The DMA (Score:1)
Three words: Direct Marketing Association.
Re:Slow action on spyware and spam (Score:2)
Re:Slow action on spyware and spam (Score:2)
Re:Slow action on spyware and spam (Score:2)
The post further up seems to be a little too focused on spyware. Spam is what frustrates me more. The stuff that I get by email isn't a huge issue, but posts on forums and coming through client's contact forms are a real pest.
business weasel-speak lexicon (Score:5, Funny)
"would stifle innovation" ---> "would impact our bottom line"
Hope that helps.
Re:business weasel-speak lexicon (Score:1, Insightful)
"Would impact our bottom line"? That's PHB-speak too. How about "We wouldn't make as much money as we do now"?
PS: Anybody else read "Mars rover escapes again" and get that song stuck in their head? "Whooo let the dogs out!"
Re:business weasel-speak lexicon (Score:2)
There IS a limit on wireless bandwidth (Score:1)
Re:There IS a limit on wireless bandwidth (Score:3, Insightful)
The point is, the limit should be a specific rate, and unlimited *usage*, as opposed to a per-bit-transferred scheme. People will always be willing to pay for faster connections, but most fear the possibility that some uncontrolled event or fraud will run their bill up to insane amounts - that isn't a factor with a limited rate - all that happens is it will just hit the rate limit and choke.
Re:There IS a limit on wireless bandwidth (Score:1)
Re:There IS a limit on wireless bandwidth (Score:2)
scarcity lead naturaly to higher prices, driving people
to be frugal with it?
Re:There IS a limit on wireless bandwidth (Score:2)
Heck, I dont get your point whether it is serious or not.
What does equal wealth distribution have to do with
scarcity and price? Unequal wealth distribution
might limit how high a price might go, but I dont
think it negates the point.
Or am I too tired?
Re:There IS a limit on wireless bandwidth (Score:2)
Re:There IS a limit on wireless bandwidth (Score:2)
product that uses wireless communication,
that company will use Bill Gates as the
epitome of their projected customer base?
Re:There IS a limit on wireless bandwidth (Score:1)
What he is trying to defend against is the destruction of the current business model with charges for every service. If you just buy an umlimited data plan, you can use anybody to send your email etc. and you don't need specialized devices (like blackberrry's). This is especially true for casual users.
Users want fixed rate plans where you also won't be sh
Fore !! (Score:2, Funny)
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/featu res/F_Better_Game_of_Golf.html [nasa.gov]
I try to tell them all they need is to put some backspin on it to avoid thoose sand traps, but do they liste
Jolley's folly (Score:5, Insightful)
Translation: My corporate masters are not pleased.
Re:Jolley's folly (Score:2)
RIM would not favor unlimited bandwidth. Of course (Score:1, Insightful)
Wired's source unrelated to the court order? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Wired's source unrelated to the court order? (Score:1, Informative)
The court order sealed the documents submitted the case, but SPECIFICALLY DID NOT prevent the plaintiff from speaking about the details of the case to the media.
So the plaintiff provided documents and facts to the media, which was kosher. The media, which, incidentally HAD NO WAY OF VERIFYING if those documents and facts were similar to those under seal, then reported the information they received.
Whether the plaintiff skirted the rules by providing exact duplicates of the
Re:Wired's source unrelated to the court order? (Score:4, Funny)
huzzah wired (Score:2)
Erm... (Score:2)
Emphasis mine, of course.
So, in corporate retardo-speak, "many different requirements" now means you should reduce the number of options?
SKUs cost money (Score:1)
It costs more to make and keep more SKUs in a warehouse. If a particular market segment requires so many different SKUs that serving the segment is unprofitable, then not serving the segment maximizes return to shareholders.
what is profitable, and when is it profitable? (Score:1)
RIM wouldn't want unlimited networking (Score:4, Insightful)
They prefer to negotiate with the carriers so their users can have unlimited network access, while everyone else pays through the nose.
A little self-interest in limited access to the wireless network. No surprise.
I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, I think DBD should continue to target Apple, rather than moving on to movie studios, since the media companies (with the exception of Sony) couldn't impose DRM without the cooperation of companies like Apple.
Lessons learned from the protest:
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:1)
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
Because its' not only about what's being produced now, i.e. artists you might influence by voting with you wallet. Copyrights have also been acquired on large parts of XXth century cultural history --
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
My opinion: DRM should be banned unless it complies with all of copyright law. That includes things like the length of copyright. If copyright law says the work passes into the public domain 70 years after the creator's death, then the DRM should allow the work to pass into the public domain then or be considered itself in violation of copyright law. The problem is that current DRM doesn't honor all of copyright law, only those parts the RIAA/MPAA want to have enforced.
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
You're making an assumption about the definition of barriers. You are thinking of physical, practical barriers, where the only consideration is, "Is it possible?" The other kind are legal barriers, where there is the consideration of, "Are you allowed to?" That is why the anti-DRM people are protesting. More on that below:
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
That's outright false. Thanks for playing.
you = uninformed (Score:2)
No it isn't. Please read the DMCA.
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
Registering just one non-DRM copy is not likely to be much use either. If the copyright owners have any sense, they will choose the cheapest, nastiest brand of CDRW they can find. It will be unreadable after hundreds of years, even if CD technology still exists.
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
We think a world in which choice 3 doesn't exist is strictly better for media users. In such
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
Most of the problem is that many people who buy DRM devices only become aware of the restrictions after they have made their purchase. Furthermore, many people aren't aware that these devices often prevent you from doing things that are perfectly legal.
My goal in participating in the DBD protests is to achieve the abolition of DRM by persuading people that it is in their interests not to buy devices th
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
And how, pray tell, is one supposed to do that? If one is on private property and one is asked to leave by the owners or their representatives, one must leave or be subject to arrest for trespass. Nothing unreasonable about that, and I don't know how you can make it seem unreasonable.
The FSF has stated that they were not engaging in civil disobedience, just a simple protest/demonstration. This was at best a weak fir
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:2)
Re:I was one of the LA anti-DRM protestors (Score:3, Informative)
Not in California. See this case [findlaw.com].
spyware protection is logical (Score:1)
Flat rate unlimited is one cause of innovation (Score:5, Insightful)
The internet started as dialup, and took too different paths in separate parts of the world.
In North America, local calls are free, and dialing a local number for internet access was one reason why the net became so popular and successful, and why lots of innovation happens in the USA as far as the net is concerned.
In most of the rest of the world, local phone calls are not free, and therefore the internet is metered. People using dialup have to be aware of the time they spend on the net, lest they run up the bill (think BBS's in another area code that you call long distance).
So, did unlimited dialup access spur innovation? I think so. Would the same be true for wireless? You bet!
Look at how cell phones are doing in North America vs. the world. The world has GSM where you are not tied to a provider you buy the handset from, and you do not pay for received calls. The contrary is true in North America.
Greed is the barrier to innovation.
Re:Flat rate unlimited is one cause of innovation (Score:2, Informative)
It's not the same though, with dialup, you had your own personal copper, your bandwidth all to yourself. With wireless, you don't have that, you have a finite total bandwidth based on a finite number of frequencies that everyone shares.
Those who disagree, don't deny there is a limited amount of bandwidth, they argue that technology will continue to increase bandwidth at the rate, or greater, tha
Re:Flat rate unlimited is one cause of innovation (Score:2, Informative)
Last time I checked, if you didn't want to take advantage of promotional pricing for a new phone through your carrier, you could always buy the phone retail. In other words, much like GSM phones, "unlocked" or retail CDMA phones can be used on just about any CDMA carrier. GSM phones ca
Re:Flat rate unlimited is one cause of innovation (Score:3)
Thankfully dialup access is a little cheaper now, but phone lines certainly arent. I'm sure this is certainly helping VOIP + Cable (though only maybe 20% of the state can get cabl
Re:Flat rate unlimited is one cause of innovation (Score:2)
My take on this stuff (Score:2)
Oklahoma's Spyware Bill dies a quiet death.
What do you expect from a bunch of dumb Okies? I'll look on the bright side: When their computers are so infected with malware as to be unusable, they won't be able to go to Republican hate sites [foxnews.com].
Lenovo denies ditching Linux . . . 'Customers of the recently introduced Lenovo 3000 units still won't have a preloaded option, however, because the small and midsize business customers that are t
Re:My take on this stuff (Score:2)
The budget for NASA's environmental science program has been eviscerated and several projects (including one sat that was completed and waiting for launch) have been killed so that the Shuttle program can continue. That'll show those namby-pamby hippy Global Warming types who's The Decider!
Re:My take on this stuff (Score:2)
Linux 2.4.32-grsec+f6b+gr217+nfs+a32+fuse23+++opt+c6+gr
oreo login:
It's highly ironic that the FSF is protesting DRM (Score:2)
And it's simply *astounding* that Brett Glass... (Score:2)
...fails to see the difference. Well, not fails, really, but simply once again chooses to misrepresent the FSF and GPL in is long running anti-GPL campaign.
Brett, of course, knows this, but just in case anyone else is confused: Asking that people who take GPL software, modify it, and use it to externally to make money, to then also redsitribute those changes, is nothing at all like DRM. Nobody is asking ASPs to pay money for the software, or for using the software. Nobody is trying to restrict their use of
Escape artist Opportunity (Score:2)
Re:Trade Secrets Must Be *SECRET* (Score:2)