Posts by Tom 13

Apple adds Galaxy S 4 to Samsung patent suit

Re: "How about you spend that fat cash on making a better product "

I disagree. Apple is free to license tech from any of the other companies, they just have to pay the patent tariff like everybody else. If their R&D department does come up with something new, they can keep it to themselves and make that their case for best of breed.

Except all of that is based on the false assumption that Apple started by being the best of breed. Jobs never actually made money that way. He made money by being the coolest. The best example of that was the Mac vs. Windows guy commercials. The Mac dude was cool, the PC guy was a dweeb. The Mac dude always had a zippy zinger, the PC guy always fumbled his come back. Sure he let you believe the Mac was a technically superior product, but he never explicitly made that claim. He made other claims (mostly true) that cause you to think he made the argument that the product was technically superior, but not the actual technically superior claim. The problem at Apple is they have either forgotten that or never knew it, only Jobs did. And with him gone, so is their edge.

Dell committee to Icahn: Show us the money

Re: So basically

No, we users are weary. The Dell BoD needs to be wary.

Actually, they need to be paranoid and even then it might not help.

Re: I give it 3 years before

So you're with the glass is half full crowd, eh?

'WikiLeaks of financial data' prompts worldwide hunt for tax evaders

So given that we now know the IRS were for political reasons

holding up some non-profit applications,

and given that we don't know where the data leaks came from,

How do we know the data was leaked by whistle blowers instead of folks working for the tax divisions that otherwise could not get their hands on the data?

You thought only Google dodges UK taxes? So do all the Brit firms

A wise man once noted

"The problem with Socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money."

I will note that the re-jiggering the definition of "tax havens" will not allow you to avoid the previous note.

Government admits seizing two months of AP phone records

@Peladon

If the AP had gone after The Big 0 for Benghazi the way they did Nixon for a stupid set of debate papers you might have a point. But near as I can tell, nobody died as a result of Nixon's debate papers malfeasance.

@Grumpy Gwen

No, it could also be schadenfreude, which is a close relative.

Although quite honestly, there's sufficient reason to believe there are legitimate processes and approvals in place for this. There was a security breach, the AP is known to have participated in it, and the government is empowered to investigate an prosecute those individuals who leaked the information, at least if they are in the US.

Maybe I'm jaded, but it seems to me the Banghazi hearings are starting to bite. We have bad news about the IRS and now the spying on the AP both trying to knock it out of the LSM headlines. Even Arias and the American Castro couldn't quite dislodge the revelations that are starting to come out.

NYC attorney seeks mobe-makers' help to curb muggings

Re: The point is convenience.

Right! That why NYC has completely eliminated gun crime in the city by making it inconvenient to obtain a gun.

Oh, wait...

Re: Simply track the sim to the sim owner and go from there.

What?!?!?!

You expect the NYC politicians to enable and expect the police to work and remove criminals from the street?

What kind of a damned fool are you?! It's a hell of a lot easier to just blame the phone companies and especially their profits.

Charity chief: Get with it, gov - kids shouldn't have to write by hand

Re: Boys are not the most natural writers?

Meh, all dead white men. They're irrelevant to modern society anyway.

/end sarcasm dripping with venom

Re: a deeper knowledge of the subject than simply memorising facts.

I have found two things to be true:

1. People who haven't memorized a considerably large number of facts generally can't make a cogent argument in broad terms.

2. When my own broad arguments flounder, it is usually because I have insufficient memorized facts to support them.

I resemble that remark

you are the sort of person that presses so hard you leave tracks on the surface of the table, but that's because... "you're holding it wrongly" (boom!)."

I usually write on stone, fiberboard, or hard plastic surface because I, um, er , ah,... hold a pencil like that.

And well,... he's still full of rubbish.

@Stu J 17:29 GMT

But to an examiner marking an essay, they have no real proof of the thought process;

Complete bollocks. If it's a multiple choice exam yes, it's only the results that count. If you turn in an essay, any essay, after I've read it I've got a pretty good idea what your thought process is. In an essay, even a short one like a post on a blog, your line of reasoning, or lack thereof, becomes immediately apparent. In general arts sections I've always done better when I could write an essay than when I had a multiple choice exam for exactly that reason.

Re: Good grief!

Delete the word 'British' from you statement and it is still true.

Yes when I was in school it was the girls who got most of the attention in writing class, but some of the best stuff was written by the boys. Granted, like a number of other posters I got better after I had a typewriter, but the writing bit was important.

Ironically it was just this weekend that my dad was lamenting that actual writing with a pencil or pen was becoming a lost art because of the computerization of schools.

The great $45m bank cyber-heist: Seven New Yorkers cuffed

Re: Layers

And in this instance, one of the most important layers wasn't even an IT security layer!

It was a standard financial practices layer: No unlimited accounts and certainly no unlimited accounts with a single signature.

@AC 7:32 GMT

My experience in the US is similar, sans chip and pin.

In fact, I generally don't even have a hold on check deposits. The only exception to that is if for some reason I transfer money directly to the savings account. But that's never been a problem since I don't intend to spend what is transferred to savings.

Re: stilling going around on payday and handing people cheques

The last time this 'Merkin received an actual check for payday was about 12 years ago and the circumstances were rather unique. It was a small shop with no more than 9 employees including the boss. At the end of the pay period he sat down in his office, wrote out the check, and handed it to each of his employees. Everywhere else I've worked I've either been required to take direct deposit, or the banks have required it for their "free checking" services.

So I'd say your experience was most unusual.

What kind of pirate are you: Justified, transgressor or just honest?

Re: Concert spending

You're right about The Mouse being at the root of the problem with US copyright laws.

Although you've at least misconstructed the private vs public tradeoff for IP rights. Yes, at some point IP needs to pass into the public domain. But if individuals can't make money from creating IP, there will be less of it created. So to generate those ideas we give an exclusive but limited time license to the person who created the IP. If the goal posts hadn't moved so frequently for The Mouse, I think we'd probably be where we ought to be on copyright. I'm doubtful software ought to fall under copyright and think it more properly belongs in the sorts of time frames we associate with patents. I would make exceptions for software that is book like in its creativity (such as Civ or a digital encylopedia) as opposed to software that is machine like (such as word processors and spreadsheets).

Wrong: it is still copyright infringement to rip your CDs onto your computer

That's covered under personal use, which is allowed in the US if it isn't in the UK. The exception is if there is a DCMA electronic means enabled to prevent copying, which is of itself a dubious exception.

Re: Why pay for something when the alternative is substitutable

Because the person who pays for it isn't an amoral bastage.

I know both types. One guy who downloads a bunch of stuff to find what he likes then looks for the best deal online (he's never be caught dead buying DVD/Blueray in a brick and mortar store). The other guy downloads gobs of torrents because he can. Interestingly, the first is doing so because the fan subbers release stuff more quickly than it is officially released where as the second guy who started for the same reasons, now routinely downloads stuff that originates in the US.

As for me, the things I'm most likely to go looking for in the future are things that I've already paid for at least twice, once on vinyl and once on CD. Frankly, I'm getting tired of getting ripped off for replacement copies.

'Liberator': Proof that you can't make a working gun in a 3D printer

I disagree with Lewis about this,

but he still has a well written article that makes his point.

And he's generated a lot of good discussion. A lot of bad discussion too, but that's entirely unavoidable.

Re: You boost self-loading is all

The DHS has already given a huge boost to self-loading. Sporting goods stores have been rationing ammo for about 6 months now just to make sure more of their customers get some.

Re: Are we all going to be interviewed by the british secret service?

Doubtful. They don't want us freaking out the mundanes who work for them.

Oh, it means what he thinks it means.

I've been off on forums that aren't filled with hoplophobes, and they are pretty much unanimous that it is easier to build a fully automatic than a semi.

Interestingly they particularly note the usefulness of 3D printers in making the lower for an AR-15, which I think we can all agree is a real weapon.

Re: Name me a State of the US which was a country before joining the US.

Texas.

Re: Which - if anything...

Pat Paulsen beat him to that line by at least 40 years.

Re: Shocking lack of perspective

To some extent, I think it was purposely made to be something that didn't have a long shelf life. Not a gunsmith myself, or even a tinkerer in that area, but I'd imagine a competent one COULD put together something more, shall we say, serviceable. Rigid plastics have been a huge improvement in the area of handguns with traditional manufacturers. But to some extent, they've kept the metal concentrations high specifically because of concerns that were raised back in the 1980s about plastic guns being able to circumvent then current security processes.

Re: simply requested politely

There was no 'polite' about it. He was ordered to take them down. It came from State under the auspices of some unratified international gun treaty.

Yes, the guy was a putz and a fool for putting them up in the first place, and as such probably didn't deserve polite treatment.

Emergency spacewalk as ISS takes a leak

Re: Only one system?

Check this article:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/13/nauts_fix_ammonia_leak/

If the pump weighs in at 260 pounds, that points at a significant engineering reason for only 1 system: too much mass to have parallel systems.

@Uffish

If it weren't for the space program, he wouldn't be able to criticize it on El Reg. The local pub perhaps, but not El Reg.

Peril in orbitT: ISS leak plugged in five-hour spacewalk

Good news indeed.

(body)

3D printed gun plans pulled after US State Department objects

Re: Read this:

Don't have to. It's based on a discredited studies even though hoplophobes refuse to admit it. Truth is: more guns less crime. In fact reliable estimates are that guns are used to stop about 2.5 million crimes a year, (not including police).

@AisForApple: Mostly true.

But you should remember that when the first firearms were introduced the orientals laughed because their swordsmen could easily stop the bullets and could kill far more people more quickly than the English could with their new found technology. So with more engineering it will present a more serious threat than what was put out in this demo. What's important is thinking rationally about that threat. Which those who are panicked about this video and the plans are unlikely to do.

Re: Sure, you could take this onto a plane.

Testing teams still routinely get ammunition, guns, and even bombs onto planes via non-approved means. The government just doesn't advertise the failure rate.

Franklin has the correct counterpoint: passengers will no longer allow airplanes to be hijacked, even if 5 or 10 of them have to die to stop it. This (and not the TSA granny strip searches) is what is stopping that line of attack.

Re: there's a reason guns aren't usually made out of plastic.

Yeah, we passed a law against it.

It wasn't the 3D printers that prompted that law. It was lawfully constituted gun manufacturers. Plastics in the gun make them lighter, easier to handle, and surprisingly more accurate. And when they found you could get them past metal detectors the spam hit the fan so to speak. Yes there were claims that you could set the scanners so it would find the casings for the bullets and everything would still be good. But it still resulted in a law to prohibit manufacturing plastic guns.

Frankly, I think it stifled innovation that I would like to have seen. I actually like guns, and the idea of an all plastic gun has an appeal to me. I'm not surprised that the hoplophobe in the listed city were quick out the gates with new legislation since what they really want is to ban all privately owned firearms. I might after some thinking even concur that we should take the risks associated with plastic guns and focus on the real problems with murders, which is not the guns. But that doesn't mean that I don't recognize certain risks associated with plastic guns and that society thought they'd already closed that barn door.

Ban Samsung sales in the US? Sorry, Apple: Tech titans say 'No'

Re: Rounded corners? Please.

While I concur that rounded corners have been around for sufficiently long to invalidate that claim, I should note that there can exist instances were an exact physical dimension can be a valid point for a patent and/or trade secret. I once worked for a manufacturing company and the precise angle (to about 2 decimal places) for part of the mechanism was the key to the efficiency of the finished product and they held the patent for it. I expect by now the patent should be long expired, but being IP won't disclose more than what I have written.

Re: rudderless on the way to the waterfall.

They may appear that way to you, but monkeyboy has his sock puppet doing exactly what he wants: turning them into the next SCO.

Tesla earns first profit, Model S wins '99% perfect' rating

Re: a review that is a tad critical will meet up with a serious shortfall in advertising

except that Consumer Reports is not an advertising supported magazine. Theoretically they are unbiased because they are a member supported group. In fact, if you've got a subscription you'll find it comes with a disclaimer that if they give you a good review, you can't buy copies to put in your showroom.

The unbiased bit is of course pure bunkum. Their leftist biased. Okay as long as politics doesn't enter into it, but bring in an issue like AWG and their impartiality goes out the window.

Re: leave your garage with a full load, go a hundred miles

So it's suitable for maybe Denmark or Luxembourg, but probably wouldn't get me to and back from my alma mater's Saturday football game.

Re: CR reviewers focus on driving.

Right, that's why their car reviews always include information about frequency and cost of repairs as well as resale value when calculating the ratings for other cars.

Why are scribes crying just 'cos Google copied their books? asks judge

Re: the authors can pull out of publishing/distribution deal with these research libraries

Given the economics of the research publishing industry, probably not. I expect their publishers entered into contracts with the libraries to provide them with the books/papers. And I expect that without the money associated with those contracts, the books/papers wouldn't get published.

Re: Google is never making any book available online without first having the author's permission.

Patently false. If it were true Google's lawyers would present the signed contracts with the authors indicating they've signed over permission and the lawsuit would be summarily dismissed, with prejudice.

Just because you want that to be true, doesn't mean it is.

Re: S/B class action, but authors should lose

An even longer, more rambling, more pointless post.

How very Marxian of you.

Re: Cory Doctorow is full of shit

There once was a relatively unknown sf writer who couldn't get a book published in the US because he mostly wrote short stories and was a relatively new writer. He did manage to get some stuff published in the UK where short story collections weren't so out of vogue. But he was willing to go to SF conventions. And there was this smallish but somewhat old convention held near Baltimore, MD every year. And it had some folks at it who thought he was a good author. So a few of them formed a new company. I believe they contacted one of the British publishers and contracted the right to use their proofs to publish a small press run of his works to sell at a convention the author was attending. (They might have actually had to set and proof this one, but I think they got the proofs.) Shortly thereafter the author had a contract with a major US publisher and is now reasonably well known for his works. His name is Allen Steele and that first book was Rude Astronauts published by Rare Earth Books. I know because I knew all the people involve with the creation of Rare Earth Books and had the good fortune to meet Mr. Steele at that convention and have him sign a book from one of those small print runs.

Bottom line, if you write good stuff in SF and work on selling it, you will make it. Maybe not big, but certainly enough to support you in middle class fashion.

Re: Socialists!

That's what I expect statists such as yourself to say. Socialism in the US has advance precisely because we've allowed too many socialist twits to impose their views on society from the bench.

Re: 2- TPB makes available the work in full

So are Google, only you'll have to work at it a bit. Different search terms in subsequent searches, but you can pull the whole thing out given enough time. Or maybe an automated program.

Re: at least not until it hits the SCoTUS.

Not even Scotus has the power to revoke the property right involved in copyright. It's power is limited to determining whether the legal rules have been followed, including the legal rules of what is constitutional.

Invalidating the protection ought to require an act of Congress with approval from Potus.

Where Scotus has issued a warning about copyrights is that the Constitution clearly states copyrights and patents should be for a "limited time." Recent Congressional actions have technically kept limits on the time, but that as we were rapidly approaching the point at which everyone who read/saw/heard such a work when it was first copyrighted is long dead, we might be exceeding the practical meaning of "limited time."

Re: many smaller suits

Hell, at that level it's likely many of the suits couldn't even afford the court filing fees let alone the cost of lawyers prior to that.

Re: Seems counterproductive...

In the specific instance you have provided you would fail on several counts, not the least of which is there is no criticism or commentary on the part copied. Even were that present, because so much of the book continues intact, you would still be guilty of infringement.

In order to get to fair use, you need to be in the sentences or paragraphs area, not pages and pages. This is well established in case law.

Re: Seems counterproductive...

Except they aren't simply serving snippets they are scanning and indexing the whole book, and the fact that they actively have to engage in scanning, then using ocr to convert the book to the machine readable files moves them well outside 'fair use' coverage. In fact, it pretty much moves them into Napster territory. Well, actually beyond Napster territory because Napster at least had the fig leaf that they weren't the one uploading the unauthorized music, while Google are actively doing it.

Once you understand the legal implications of that, you understand why Google's lawyers want the class action status resolved first. Resolve the copyright issue first and it's a slam dunk for the authors. Once that's established, class action makes perfect sense. If on the other hand you can split out all the suits into a mouse versus Goliath, the mouse is probably gonna lose, repeatedly.