Survey

Guess who the biggest segment in support of the ban are? 18-29 year old females.

The solution?

The only time we ever delete comments is if the comment contains malformed HTML that is somehow causing Slashdot to fail to display properly. Comments are not deleted on the basis of content. [snip]
--CmdrTaco

"The only time we ever delete, blah, blah, blah"?
I'm going to go with "Um, no."

Doh. I had somewhat watched the UID numbers approaching 1 million, thinking I might try for the millionth account. Guess I missed that one. Looks like no one else remembered to try to grab it either, it looks like a normal account name.

tor?por? [tawr-per] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
-noun
1. sluggish inactivity or inertia.
2. lethargic indifference; apathy.
3. a state of suspended physical powers and activities.
4. dormancy, as of a hibernating animal.
[Origin: 1600-10; L: numbness, equiv. to torp(?re) to be stiff or numb + -or -or1]

--Synonyms 2. stolidity, listlessness, lethargy. 4. sleepiness, slumber, drowsiness.

Looks like I'm behind the curve on this AOL Search leak story that broke last week. Been really busy.

This blog entry is the precise reason that "if you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to be afraid of" is bullshit.

They take some searches this guy did, and ascribe some real world intent to them. To me, it's obvious he's just one of us that is facinated with stuff like rotten.com, goregasm, crime stories and accident stories. Doesn't mean we want to kill anyone.

I don't think the transparent society would work. Too many people making too many assumptions about intent. Sometimes you need a little privacy, even if you aren't doing anything wrong.

And bloggers that need some serious lessons in responsible journalism aren't helping matters.

So it came up again in discussion. I hate the "lecture" concept, I think it's obselete, and only still exists to serve to boost the egos of professors who are too inept to garner respect outside the acedemic institutions.

The learning pyramid

Yep. I kinda wonder if that chart is being taught in a lecture-format class at tamu.edu... pretty ironic.

This is great. Apparently idiots working at MS don't even understand such advanced concepts as what "ROM" stands for.

It rained here, so we didn't get to any of the parades.

I'll probably pass on the fireworks tonight, as I have to get up at 5:00 am tomorrow.

Right now the CPSC is trying to go outside their juristiction to ban the sales of anything they consider a "chemical" to the public, since chemicals and other raw materials aren't safe consumer products. They are doing this under the guise of preventing the sale of illegal explosive fireworks to the public.

The ATF has the juristiction to regulate the manufacture and sales of such explosive devices, not the CPSC. The ATF is not trying to ban the sales of chemicals to the public.

Pretty soon it will be illegal to buy any raw materials for anything unless you can prove you are a business.

Anyway, sign up for the Fireworks alliance. They have nice prewritten letters you can send to your elected people.

Fireworks Alliance

DEATHBOT 9000 RUNS ON OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE! DEATHBOT 9000 IS ROUTIENELY MODERATED +5 INSIGHTFUL ON SLASHDOT! DEATHBOT 9000 MET WIL WHEATON ONCE! Deathbot 9000 has no concept of an indoor voice! Deathbot 9000 blathers incessantly about the GPL!

More Information

The new G5s apparently don't use IEC power cables for some arbitrary reason (likely so they can sell replacements at $100 a piece).

Apple are such bastards.

Only $90

I'm speechless. It's a fucking pill fob. I got 3 of these for $2 in surplus not too long ago.

I'm working on a larger version of this, which I can hopefully run past some lawyerly type friends, but here's the short of it that I promised:

Right now, if I want to develop a product or software, I am faced with a tough choice:

1. Do a patent search, likely find some vague patents that might cover what I want to do, or
2. Do no patent search and just live dangerously.

If I do the patent search and decide to proceed, I may be liable later on for triple damages since I knew about the patents that I am accused of infringing.

If I don't do the search, I might clearly infringe on a patent I could have worked around with a different implementation.

What leads to this situation is that no one really knows what a patent covers until the court rules on it. Most defendants would consider that a little bit too late for them.

So here's the proposal, I call it "Double or Nothing":

1. If you are distributing a product, you incur no patent liability until you are notified of infringement.

2. If you immediately cease the alleged infringing action or accept the license terms, then you can not be sued.

3. You can continue the action that is the subject of the alleged infringement, without paying royalties, and be sued for damages from the notification date forward only.

4. In either case however, you may immediately sue the patent holder, challenging the patent claim. You may sue for any legal costs associated with the case, and lost revenue caused by ceasing the alleged infringing action.

5. Under this system, all actionable infringement is willful, so there's no need to let treble damages influence your choice to research patents.

Right now the patent holders have little to lose. It's easy for some small patent holding company to spam out infringement notices with impunity. This system would balance the risk, you'd better be damn sure of infringement before you start sending out notices of infringement, as you then become liable for lost revenue and court costs for every company that decided to cease the infringing action and challenge your patent.

This doesn't fix everything, but it would sure fix some of the abuses that are really hindering innovation.

I hate it when people say "RTFA".. especially if you did, even more if they are completely wrong. Pisses me off to no end.

Everyone should just say IITA (It's in the article). Means basically the same thing, less likely to piss people off, and you don't sound like a penis if they did read the fucking article and actually understood the implications better than you did.