would be an immense benefit to researchers. For that reason it is likely to be banned by the US Congress and its proposers thretened with a one-way trip to Guantánamo....
everybody knows that we Swedes own the norrsken. Why our (unofficial) national song refers to «Din himmel» (Your sky), which for all unbiased observers should suffice to clinch the argument. Tourists are, of course, welcome to observe the phenomenon, but woe betide them if any pieces of the Lights are discovered on them when they pass through check-in at the aeroport on the way home !...
«I'd be interested to see if anyone can explain how a system that allows a company like Microsoft to set up a licensing business on someone else's products without any proven legal basis other than the implied threat that they might sue, is a functioning system?» Seems to function for Microsoft, does it not ? The question is not whether a system functions, but for whom. Pecuniam non olet....
Ah yes, Mr Barnes, it is unions which have forced - presumably after threatening them with a fate worse than death - the CEOs and board chairmen of US corporations to send «American jobs» to countries in which wages are lower. And of course it is union leaders, not corporate executives, who receive multi-million bonuses when wages and workforces are cut. Any further absurdities which you'd care to peddle on this thread ?...
Well, Mr Geigner, given that the proportion of union membership among the employed in the United States is lower than that in any comparable country, you must be living in an economic and social paradise in which waste and corruption are so good as unknown. Congratulations ! That underpaid lecturers - the PhD proletariat - might want to organise to protect their interests and have every right to do so is, of course, patently absurd, and can only be supported by people like us in Europe who don't get it....
Nothing odd here, Mike ; merely yet another attempt to extend US jurisdiction beyond the boundaries of the physical United States - now to the Chinese spirit world. Since the Chinese government may well regard this region as part of its own territory or, at the very least, a core interest, the Pentagon will of course have to beef up its bloated budget by a couple of extra thousand million USD (which the US economy can well afford) in order to meet the potential threat to its full-spectrum dominance....
«What kind of country allows such a ridiculous suppression of basic rights?»
A country whose leadership is, along with counterparts in other lands, in the process of bombing people in other lands in accordance with a «responsibility to protect» them. «Difficile est saturam non scribere....»
Wow, Mike, I wasn't aware of your diplomatic talents ! «Under the sway of», indeed ! «Bought and sold by» would be a more accurate description - and that goes in even higher degree for the US Congress than for the administration. Thus, I fear that your conclusions are entirely justified : «... I can't imagine they'll be open to looking at the actual research on the issue or tackling the real problems of the patent system»....
Henri
which otherwise sums up the situation pretty accurately :
1) the name of the ISP in question is Bahnhof
2) Contrary to what copyright collide (from which Mike took this information) reports, Bahnhof is not going to «automatically encrypt all traffic on their network via a VPN», but rather is going to charge customers an additional 40SEK - approximately 7USD, depending upon currency fluctuations - monthly for this service, dubbed «anonine» (http://bredband.bahnhof.se/tjanster/anonine).
Like Mike, I hope more providers jump on the bandwagon !...
Henri
of the US State Department would be advised to begin his or her research with a dip into Alan Stuart Franken's book, «Lies and the lying liars that tell them», just for background colour....
Henri
that so many of our elected officials, no matter what their political party, seem to have fallen for the same fallacy ...» Unfortunate, yes, surprising, no. Or, as Upton Beall Sinclair put it «It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it !» «Salary» here should be understood to include campaign contributions and other bribes....
Henri
that publication of this list - and updates, as other would-be internet censors come to the fore - has the desired effect. All the talk from the US State Department and Google - to name just a few - on their dedication to a free exchange of information and their castigation of, e g, China for censoring sites that government dislikes, while ignoring the ever increasing tendencies to censorship at home. The only effective means of countering these restrictions on basic freedoms is to hit their sponsors where it hurts - in their wallets. Boycott these firms - and tell your friends to do the same !...
Henri
would seem to be that :
1) Microsoft chose to use a Linux server as one running Windows did not meet their needs, and
2) Those assigned to running it were incompetent.
Perhaps you would care to explain just how this invalidates Google's objections to the manner in which the US DOI crafted the RFQ ?...
Henri
that the US Department of the Interior floated a request for quotation which only considers proposals involving the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite might want to consider reading, just as one example of many, Dan Goodin's recent Reg article (goo.gl/AB3p0). Security problems, as we all know, are rife in IT, but to propose Microsoft as the solution shows either naked self-interest or a degree of naiveté which is hardly credible. Writing a specification to pass a given company's product and only that product is not the way to run an organisation, whether government or private - although it may benefit the personal economies of certain officials....
Henri
home of the brave. Of course, things are bound to improve, now that those freedom-loving Republicans (in addition to such figures as Richard Bruce Cheney and George Walker Bush, Joseph Raymond McCarthy comes to mind) have taken over control of the US House of Representatives....
handling of cases is delayed, bogus reasons for refusing access to information are widely employeed by the authorities, and most significant of all, the political backgrounds of those who demand information according to the stipulations of the law are investigated. Is anybody particularly surprised ?...
Henri
should not be subject to patents in the first place - imagine every school child paying, say, Microsoft for using the Pythagorean theorem (which was, of course, well known long before Pythagoras) ! But selling out the results of research funded by the public purse to deep-pocketed corporations is par for the course - government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich scores yet another triumph !...
Henri
You don't seem to have been doing your homework - or perhaps, since the news is all of two months old, you've simply forgotten that your government wants to allow the FBI to compel internet providers to turn over records of an individual's internet activity without a court order (goo.gl/Lijh ). Can it be that like many in your country, you are more concerned with the mote in your neighbour's eye than the beam in your own ? As for tech being ripped off, how much, for example, do you pay the Chinese everytime you wipe yourself after defecation ? Both paper and more specifically, toilet paper are Chinese inventions....
Henri
There's no doubt but what this project - or something like it -
would be an immense benefit to researchers. For that reason it is likely to be banned by the US Congress and its proposers thretened with a one-way trip to Guantánamo....
Henri
There's no need for the Finns or the Norwegians to get all hot and bothered ;
everybody knows that we Swedes own the norrsken. Why our (unofficial) national song refers to «Din himmel» (Your sky), which for all unbiased observers should suffice to clinch the argument. Tourists are, of course, welcome to observe the phenomenon, but woe betide them if any pieces of the Lights are discovered on them when they pass through check-in at the aeroport on the way home !...
Henri
Delicious irony,
that - a US diplomat complaining about China's great firewall ! Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi, I presume....
Henri
Functioning system ?
«I'd be interested to see if anyone can explain how a system that allows a company like Microsoft to set up a licensing business on someone else's products without any proven legal basis other than the implied threat that they might sue, is a functioning system?» Seems to function for Microsoft, does it not ? The question is not whether a system functions, but for whom. Pecuniam non olet....
Henri
Re: Ah, unions...
Ah yes, Mr Barnes, it is unions which have forced - presumably after threatening them with a fate worse than death - the CEOs and board chairmen of US corporations to send «American jobs» to countries in which wages are lower. And of course it is union leaders, not corporate executives, who receive multi-million bonuses when wages and workforces are cut. Any further absurdities which you'd care to peddle on this thread ?...
Henri
Those dastardly unions
Well, Mr Geigner, given that the proportion of union membership among the employed in the United States is lower than that in any comparable country, you must be living in an economic and social paradise in which waste and corruption are so good as unknown. Congratulations ! That underpaid lecturers - the PhD proletariat - might want to organise to protect their interests and have every right to do so is, of course, patently absurd, and can only be supported by people like us in Europe who don't get it....
Henri
Dead Chinese don't infringe
Nothing odd here, Mike ; merely yet another attempt to extend US jurisdiction beyond the boundaries of the physical United States - now to the Chinese spirit world. Since the Chinese government may well regard this region as part of its own territory or, at the very least, a core interest, the Pentagon will of course have to beef up its bloated budget by a couple of extra thousand million USD (which the US economy can well afford) in order to meet the potential threat to its full-spectrum dominance....
Henri
(untitled comment)
«What kind of country allows such a ridiculous suppression of basic rights?»
A country whose leadership is, along with counterparts in other lands, in the process of bombing people in other lands in accordance with a «responsibility to protect» them. «Difficile est saturam non scribere....»
Henri
«... it's appeared that the administration is under the sway of lobbyist»
Wow, Mike, I wasn't aware of your diplomatic talents ! «Under the sway of», indeed ! «Bought and sold by» would be a more accurate description - and that goes in even higher degree for the US Congress than for the administration. Thus, I fear that your conclusions are entirely justified : «... I can't imagine they'll be open to looking at the actual research on the issue or tackling the real problems of the patent system».... Henri
Two caveats to this article,
which otherwise sums up the situation pretty accurately : 1) the name of the ISP in question is Bahnhof 2) Contrary to what copyright collide (from which Mike took this information) reports, Bahnhof is not going to «automatically encrypt all traffic on their network via a VPN», but rather is going to charge customers an additional 40SEK - approximately 7USD, depending upon currency fluctuations - monthly for this service, dubbed «anonine» (http://bredband.bahnhof.se/tjanster/anonine). Like Mike, I hope more providers jump on the bandwagon !... Henri
It would seem that anyone interested in the (recent ?) history
of the US State Department would be advised to begin his or her research with a dip into Alan Stuart Franken's book, «Lies and the lying liars that tell them», just for background colour.... Henri
Thanks for this well-written article, Mike -
I very much look forward to seeing the video !... Henri
«It's really quite unfortunate
that so many of our elected officials, no matter what their political party, seem to have fallen for the same fallacy ...» Unfortunate, yes, surprising, no. Or, as Upton Beall Sinclair put it «It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it !» «Salary» here should be understood to include campaign contributions and other bribes.... Henri
I fervently hope
that publication of this list - and updates, as other would-be internet censors come to the fore - has the desired effect. All the talk from the US State Department and Google - to name just a few - on their dedication to a free exchange of information and their castigation of, e g, China for censoring sites that government dislikes, while ignoring the ever increasing tendencies to censorship at home. The only effective means of countering these restrictions on basic freedoms is to hit their sponsors where it hurts - in their wallets. Boycott these firms - and tell your friends to do the same !... Henri
The most obvious conclusions to be drawn from the article to which you refer, Darren,
would seem to be that : 1) Microsoft chose to use a Linux server as one running Windows did not meet their needs, and 2) Those assigned to running it were incompetent. Perhaps you would care to explain just how this invalidates Google's objections to the manner in which the US DOI crafted the RFQ ?... Henri
Allegations that it was for reasons of security
that the US Department of the Interior floated a request for quotation which only considers proposals involving the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite might want to consider reading, just as one example of many, Dan Goodin's recent Reg article (goo.gl/AB3p0). Security problems, as we all know, are rife in IT, but to propose Microsoft as the solution shows either naked self-interest or a degree of naiveté which is hardly credible. Writing a specification to pass a given company's product and only that product is not the way to run an organisation, whether government or private - although it may benefit the personal economies of certain officials.... Henri
Land of the free,
home of the brave. Of course, things are bound to improve, now that those freedom-loving Republicans (in addition to such figures as Richard Bruce Cheney and George Walker Bush, Joseph Raymond McCarthy comes to mind) have taken over control of the US House of Representatives....
Henri
FOIA is to a large degree a fraud -
handling of cases is delayed, bogus reasons for refusing access to information are widely employeed by the authorities, and most significant of all, the political backgrounds of those who demand information according to the stipulations of the law are investigated. Is anybody particularly surprised ?... Henri
Mathematical algorithms
should not be subject to patents in the first place - imagine every school child paying, say, Microsoft for using the Pythagorean theorem (which was, of course, well known long before Pythagoras) ! But selling out the results of research funded by the public purse to deep-pocketed corporations is par for the course - government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich scores yet another triumph !... Henri
@ an anonymous coward from the USA
You don't seem to have been doing your homework - or perhaps, since the news is all of two months old, you've simply forgotten that your government wants to allow the FBI to compel internet providers to turn over records of an individual's internet activity without a court order (goo.gl/Lijh ). Can it be that like many in your country, you are more concerned with the mote in your neighbour's eye than the beam in your own ? As for tech being ripped off, how much, for example, do you pay the Chinese everytime you wipe yourself after defecation ? Both paper and more specifically, toilet paper are Chinese inventions.... Henri