Comment The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy (Score 1) 1365
I won't enjoy it.- Marvin, the Paranoid Android
Comment Re:At what power are they going to send the neutri (Score 1) 275
I hope that by the time this has been developed to assist high frequency trading, that a mandatory minimum time of ownership of stocks of -say- a few days has been established for all stock markets. High frequency trading is detrimental for society.
Comment In other news... (Score 1) 1328
...Pope Picks God over Physics For Big Bang
Comment Re:This is all from the Mumbai terror attacks (Score 1) 281
[[ ducks ]]
Comment Re:You look like a voorwerp! (Score 1) 123
Voorwerp indeed translates into English as object, yet it only refers to objects you can, say, pick up. A car would already be a stretch. A more general translation of the English word object is the Dutch word object. Using the first name of the discoverer and the word voorwerp for an object this size has a ring of understatement to it.
Comment Re:Your argument is dead, Zed (Score 1) 572
I find the essence in Zed's: "I try to show them how ...".
The problem is getting the message across, not the statistics.
Zed, try harder, and most of all, try other approaches. People are funny creatures.
The problem is getting the message across, not the statistics.
Zed, try harder, and most of all, try other approaches. People are funny creatures.
Comment one word... (Score 1) 1019
... otoplastics
Comment Re:Biomimetics (Score 1) 92
In other words: "reasonably intelligent design"
Comment Re:Reason for free e-book (Score 1) 237
There's a couple of reasons people would want an ebook:
- They want a reference copy to easily, digitally search through
- They don't like wasting paper / don't want to pay for full printed copy
- They want to carry a small library in their mobile phone, to have it always available for reference.
Comment There's some sense in non-global patents (Score 1) 495
For a software company, I can see the benefit of a global patent. Then again, if I invent a new fence to keep the kangaroos of my cattlestation, I'd prefer to file for a cheaper Australian patent instead.
Feed Techdirt: Amazon Uses DMCA To Try To Block Other Ebooks From Getting On Your Kindle (techdirt.com)
Slashdot points us to the rather unfortunate news that Amazon has sent a DMCA takedown notice to MobileRead, concerning a link that site had to a small piece of software that would allow ebooks purchased elsewhere (other than Amazon) to work on the Kindle. There are a number of issues here, all of which seem troubling.
First, MobileRead never hosted the software in question, but merely had links to the tool and some instructions. Such a takedown is only supposed to be used for sites that actually have the infringing material. However, thanks to the wonderful chilling effects of the DMCA, MobileRead removed the links.
Second, it's not at all clear how this script violates the DMCA. It doesn't remove copy protection at all. It just serves to open up the device for other eBooks to be used on the device. All too often we've been seeing the DMCA used in cases like this, where companies are treating the DMCA's anti-circumvention clauses to mean that they can stop just about any script they don't like from being available. This is clearly not what the DMCA was intended to do.
Third, the script was useful for allowing legally obtained ebooks from other stores to be read on the device. In other words, it was not a tool for copyright infringement, but for reading legally obtained works. This is a massive problem with the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause: it makes circumvention itself illegal, even if the circumvention is used for non-infringing purposes.
Fourth, Amazon's decision to send a DMCA takedown, in light of all of the above, is bothersome. One would hope that a company like Amazon wouldn't be quite so aggressive in trying to block out competition, in such ways -- especially to the extent of abusing copyright law. There have been a bunch of lawsuits in the past that have pretty much all said using the DMCA solely for anti-competitive purposes is not a legitimate use of the DMCA -- hopefully, someone can send Amazon's lawyers the various cases to make it clear to them that they're on the wrong side of the law here.
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First, MobileRead never hosted the software in question, but merely had links to the tool and some instructions. Such a takedown is only supposed to be used for sites that actually have the infringing material. However, thanks to the wonderful chilling effects of the DMCA, MobileRead removed the links.
Second, it's not at all clear how this script violates the DMCA. It doesn't remove copy protection at all. It just serves to open up the device for other eBooks to be used on the device. All too often we've been seeing the DMCA used in cases like this, where companies are treating the DMCA's anti-circumvention clauses to mean that they can stop just about any script they don't like from being available. This is clearly not what the DMCA was intended to do.
Third, the script was useful for allowing legally obtained ebooks from other stores to be read on the device. In other words, it was not a tool for copyright infringement, but for reading legally obtained works. This is a massive problem with the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause: it makes circumvention itself illegal, even if the circumvention is used for non-infringing purposes.
Fourth, Amazon's decision to send a DMCA takedown, in light of all of the above, is bothersome. One would hope that a company like Amazon wouldn't be quite so aggressive in trying to block out competition, in such ways -- especially to the extent of abusing copyright law. There have been a bunch of lawsuits in the past that have pretty much all said using the DMCA solely for anti-competitive purposes is not a legitimate use of the DMCA -- hopefully, someone can send Amazon's lawyers the various cases to make it clear to them that they're on the wrong side of the law here.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Comment Re:shameless (Score 1) 421
They were known at the time. Also, the temperatures mentioned in the article are a bit low: "Steels melt at about 1,150C (2,102F)", as these steels would melt at about 1500 C; 1150 is more in the range of cast iron and very modern high strength steels with 15 % Mn. Also, the magnetic effects quoted in the article are of little relevance for understanding the well known effects of heat on strength of steels, apart from at a very fundamental level, which is currently of little practical use.
Submission + - FBI to restrict student freedoms (pressesc.com)
amigoro writes: "US university students will not be able to work late at the campus, travel abroad, show interest in their colleagues' work, have friends outside America, engage in independent research, or make extra money without the prior consent of the authorities, according to a set of guidelines given to administrators by the FBI. Feds are going around briefing top universities including MIT about "espionage indicators" aimed at identifying foreign agents and terrorists who might steal university research."
Submission + - The Perfect Storm: Apple Hacks the Hackers
peter deacon writes: Is the iPhone the next Segway, the next Zune, or the next iPod? The Perfect Storm offers some secret iPhone details that aren't really a secret, but are lost upon the analysts and journalists cranking out hit pieces on the iPhone. Why is everyone from Gartner to Gizmodo calling for a boycott of the iPhone? It's all connected with a worry that open platforms will level the playing field too much. An interesting take on how Apple's new mobile phone will push to open up the web as a mobile platform for every mobile device on the market with a standards-based browser, and how Apple hacked the hackers by releasing Safari for Windows in advance of its new phone.
Virtualization May Break Vista DRM 294
Nom du Keyboard writes "An article in Computerworld posits that the reason Microsoft has flip-flopped on allowing all versions of Vista to be run in virtual machines, is that it breaks the Vista DRM beyond detection, or repair. So is every future advance in computer security and/or usability going to be held hostage to the gods of Hollywood and Digital Restrictions Management? 'Will encouraging consumer virtualization result in a major uptick in piracy? Not anytime soon, say analysts. One of the main obstacles is the massive size of VMs. Because they include the operating system, the simulated hardware, as well as the software and/or multimedia files, VMs can easily run in the tens of gigabytes, making them hard to exchange over the Internet. But DeGroot says that problem can be partly overcome with .zip and compression tools -- some, ironically, even supplied by Microsoft itself.'"
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