| Wednesday,
April 4, 2001
From Mike Morris:
Below is a piece of the use of terms agreement for
Microsoft's Passport Website seen yesterday.
As I understand this Hotmail and their instant
messaging is a part of this. For those of you who use e-mail and Microsoft
services this should be taken as a warning for your property rights.
As an example, if you send a message to or from a
hotmail account you have no recourse if Microsoft puts it on a billboard.
"Grant them permission..." Yeah, right....
This is insane !
>LICENSE TO MICROSOFT > >By posting
messages, uploading files, inputting data, submitting >any feedback or
suggestions, or engaging in any other form of >communication with or
through the Passport Web Site, you warrant >and represent that you own
or otherwise control the rights necessary >to do so and you are
granting Microsoft and its affiliated companies >permission to: >
>1. Use, modify, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly
>perform, reproduce, publish, sublicense, create derivative works from,
>transfer, or sell any such communication. > >2. Sublicense to
third parties the unrestricted right to exercise any of the >foregoing
rights granted with respect to the communication. > >3. Publish your
name in connection with any such communication. > >The foregoing
grants shall include the right to exploit any proprietary >rights in
such communication, including but not limited to rights under
>copyright, trademark, service mark or patent laws under any relevant
>jurisdiction. No compensation will be paid with respect to Microsoft's
use >of the materials contained within such communication. Microsoft is
under no >obligation to post or use any materials you may provide and
may remove such >materials at any time in Microsoft's sole discretion.
What we have here is legal incompetence. I am
sure Microsoft never intended what you think this implies, and I am fairly
sure this doesn't grant that: but you can't know because it makes no
sense. Legal documents don't have to be written this way, but some lawyers
do it to impress their non-legal bosses.
Competent law firms write license agreements that
make sense and can be understood. Competent legal supervisors insist that
the lawyers who work for them write documents that can be understood, and
if they have to incorporate terms of art make it clear what those are
intended to accomplish. It's not rocket science, after all: documents have
to be understood by judges and eventually by juries.
Or if this is a competently drafted document the
implications are far worse. Personally, if I were Microsoft I would plead
incompetence...
For a more legal view:
Subject: Microsoft Owns Your Soul...
Thanks to Trish for the heads up...
All your data (and biz plans) belong to Microsoft
By: Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco Posted: 30/03/2001 at 15:07 GMT http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/18002.html
With Microsoft's HailStorm .NET initiative hinging
on the company's very own PassPort service, you'd think Redmond would be
bending over backwards to stress the confidentially of user information.
Well, if that's the case, it hasn't started yet.
The current Passport Terms of Use agreement not only
fails to guarantee confidentially, but actually gives Microsoft and its
business partners the right to own your information, and do pretty much
what they want with it. That encompasses all your Hotmail and MSN
Messenger communications today.
As the Terms state:
"By posting messages, uploading files,
inputting data, submitting any feedback or suggestions, or engaging in any
other form of communication with or through the Passport Web Site ... you
are granting Microsoft and its affiliated companies permission to:
1. Use, modify, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly
display, publicly perform, reproduce, publish, sublicense, create
derivative works from, transfer, or sell any such communication.
2. Sublicense to third parties the unrestricted
right to exercise any of the foregoing rights granted with respect to the
communication.
3. Publish your name in connection with any such
communication."
And it doesn't stop there. Are you emailing a
contact about a hot idea or business plan of your own? Hand that over,
too:
The foregoing grants shall include the right to
exploit any proprietary rights in such communication, including but not
limited to rights under copyright, trademark, service mark or patent laws
under any relevant jurisdiction. No compensation will be paid with respect
to Microsoft's use of the materials contained within such communication.
After the eFront debacle, we're baffled why anyone
would want to trust confidential communications to any of the big IM
services, let alone MSN Messenger.
Apple originally launched its iDisk service with a
similar landgrab, but was quickly forced to retreat.
As reader Ken points out, 'All Your Data Belong To
Us'. He's not kidding.
Lawrence A. Husick
LIPTON, WEINBERGER &; HUSICK Intellectual
Property and Technology Law Lawrence@LawHusick.com http://www.LawHusick.com
P.O. Box 587 Southeastern, PA 19399-0587 610/296-8259 Voice 610/296-5816
Fax AOL/Netscape IM: LawHusick
"The wireless telegraph is not difficult to
understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the
tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same,
only without the cat. "
- Albert Einstein
Thank you. counselor.
 On
Hormesis:
Jerry
You mentioned that "interestingly, cancer rates
in Denver where you get more natural radiation than in Los Angeles, are
lower than for Los Angeles". There was an article recently on this
topic in New Scientist http://archive.newscientist.com/archive.jsp?id=22825100
. Written by Sibylle Hechtel it examined the work of Thomas Johnson and
Jim Cypser, of the University of Colorado in Boulder, on hormesis - the
idea that low doses of physical stresses may have a protective effect.
She also referred to Thomas Luckey, of the
University of Missouri in Columbia, whose study of nuclear workers in
Baltimore shipyards so convinced Luckey of the benefits of radiation that
in a 1999 paper, he recommended that we "use radionuclides as food
additives".
Like many of your correspondents I've enjoyed your,
and Larry Niven's, SF for many years and I also bought Byte mainly for
your column. Thanks for all of this, for your web site and column which I
always find stimulating and entertaining. Keep up the good work.
Paul Dove
Thanks for the reference. As I have said, the
Swedish Army has data on the hormesis effects of low level radiation also.
Thanks for the kind words.
Note that there are a pair of physicians who have
for 40 years made their reputations on the "any radiation is harmful,
even the tiniest amount" hypothesis. The data indicate otherwise.
I have a feeling I have put this up before, but
it does no harm to include it here:
Dr. Pournelle,
http://www.intellicast.com/Star/World/UnitedStates/SolarActivity/
A great picture of the sun. Apparently it's active
enough to kick off aurorae in the Southwest, though the skyglow around LA
is probably too bright for you to see them. I have a similar problem with
Chicago....
Regards,
JBWoodford
I have asked if JB Woodford is any relation to
the late JHack Woodford whose "How to make a living at writing"
books rank up with those of the late Dwight Swaine's Techniques of the
Selling Writer. Woodford was involved in some kind of scandal which I am
told was more entrapment than anything else, and about which I know
little; but his books on writing were very practical and had an influence
on my in my formative years. But apparently there is no relation other
than names. Woodford isn't an uncommon name, of course.
All of the Woodford books I had have long since
gone into the collections of book borrowers, which is all right: I hope
they do their present owners some good.
From Jim Warren:
[This reminds me of a book from around the late
'60s, "The Late, Great State of California" -- about what would
happen if there was a great quake and California suddenly slipped under
the Pacific. --jim]
America has engaged in some self-righteous finger
wagging lately, because California doesn't have enough electricity to meet
its needs.
The rest of the country seems to be content to let
Californians dangle in the breeze without enough power to meet their
needs. They laugh and sneer at Californians' frivolity and waste. The
out-of-state power generators, and the energy cartel that powers most of
them, want to keep their power for themselves.
But the fact is, California's 48th in the nation in
power consumed per person.
Okay, America -- since you're going to keep yours,
we'll keep ours:
You know all those great products that come in
through California's ports from Pacific rim nations? Sorry, but we waste
our resources, power, air quality and roadways on your shipments any more.
Of course, this includes all the Alaskan and Pacific oil that comes
through our ports and refineries. Sorry, we need it for our own use. Hope
Oregon and Washington can handle all that stuff for you folks in all the
rest of the nation.
California grows more than half the nation's
vegetables and fruit. But we don't have enough energy to process them for
both you and for us, so we're keeping them. We grow 99% or more of the
nation's almonds, artichokes, dates, figs, kiwifruit, olives, persimmons,
pistachios, prunes, raisins and walnuts. Hope you won't miss them.
California is the nation's number one dairy
producer. But we don't have enough power to run our milking machines,
refrigerated warehouses and home refrigerators to serve you as well as
ourselves. Want milk, butter, cheese? Get a cow.
We Californians have been designing and building
much of the high-tech products and services that you use. Silicon Valley
is ours, after all. But since you're apparently keeping your electricity
for yourselves, we'll keep all of our high tech products, services and
innovation for ourselves. And by the way, we own the patents.
California builds a good percentage of the
commercial airliners, and a much larger percentage of aircraft parts, for
the planes that fly you to where you used to need to go. But we don't have
the spare power to build them for you, any more. Maybe Boeing in
Washington State, and Europe's Airbus can help you -- without violating
our patents.
And while we're at it, we're keeping all our
aerospace stuff, too -- like the satellite systems that give you
television and telecommunications. But it'll be good for you, to start
reading books again for your entertainment, and writing letters to your
distant friends and business associates.
Want to see a movie or TV show or get some music
CDs? We create most of the world's entertainment here, when we have enough
power to do so. Since you're keeping your power and gas, we're keeping our
entertainment. Maybe you can make your own; amateur theatre can be great
fun. But most of the on-screen and behind-the-scenes talent and experience
are here, along with the editing suites, processing labs, printing
facilities, sound engineers, recording studios and distribution know-how.
But it'll be fun for you to learn how to do your own -- and after all, you
won't have our movies or TV or CDs to distract you.
When we had enough electricity, we produced more
than 17 million gallons of California table wines per year for the nation
and the world. We'll need all it to drown our sorrows when we think about
the fact that no matter how many California products and services we
produce and export to make all Americans' lives better, those same
Americans don't think the process is reciprocal.
Many of you think that we don't build enough power
plants in California.
Well -- you don't grow enough food, produce enough
milk, build enough high-tech products, create enough innovation, produce
enough high-tech services, make enough telecom systems, build enough
aerospace systems, create enough movies, press enough CDs, build enough
airplanes or make enough wine.
Oh, and by the way, there's no room for you in
Yosemite, California's parks and recreational areas, or on our ski slopes,
hiking trails or beaches. Since we don't have enough electricity to
produce things for you, we'll have a lot more time to lay back and enjoy
those pleasures and beauties. We can't spare any space -- or electricity
-- for you.
Well ... gotta go, now. Surf's up! The Californians
Now I would have thought that a joke, and that
anyone responding seriously not only didn't get it but has a guilty
conscience; I put this on a par with the demand to the State of Washington
that they send us more of their water and power or we will send them more
of our earthquakes. See below.
From Ed Hume
Subject: Uncle Sam's science wonderland
To view the entire article, go to http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17404-2001Mar30.html
Uncle Sam's Funhouse
And then there is this:
Dear Dr. Pournelle,
Some of your readers are starting to get religious
about programming languages again. I remember from the days of GW Basic
and MS/DOS that Bill Gates once stated that if a program could be written
in any language, he could write a program in Basic to do the same thing.
He never claimed the Basic program would be fast or efficient, just that
it would work. I have used some of his early products, and know that he is
a capable and intelligent programmer. I feel that the computer world lost
something when he changed his goals.
regards,
William L. Jones wljones@dallas.net
I completely agree, and I wish that Microsoft had
not gone so heavily nto Visual Basic as to make it very difficult to
import older BASCOM programs into it. It isn't that I don't like the VB
I/O, it's that I find it hard to write a structured program with proper
delcarations and top-down structure in VB with its dragging and clicking.
Perhaps that is me.
I really need a couple of good examples of VB
programs written WITHOUT using mouse and drag and click: that start with
initialization block, declare 2 variables, load the string
"Hello" into one, and the string "World" into a
second, concatenate them, and print the results; as you would do in QBASIC
but in Visual Basic without ever ever ever "opening a control"
or if it is required then to have that control empty.
Yes, I know: it's probably all in the books, and
if I took a week off I could probably figure it out. But BASIC used to be
simple to start off and use, and I guess my aging brain just doesn't see
how to incorporate programs written in the old structure into the
"controls" of VB. I have tried and it never seems to work. My
fault I am sure.
But I sure miss the old Commercial Basic and
BASCOM and so forth. On Python see below.
And to complete a thought started earlier:
Dr. Pournelle -
"IN the case of World Net Daily I don't know a thing: the masthead
doesn't reveal anyone I know"
World Net Daily is the WWW offshoot of the Western
Journalism Center. Both are run by Joseph Farah. Mr. Farah claims to be an
American Christian of Lebanese Arab descent, and I have not seen anything
to contradict that. Here are three typical articles mentioning his lineage
and beliefs.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=21270
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=15074
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=15003
If you remember the Clinton White House published
their "Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce" document, a
300+ page rant about what Hillary later called the "Vast Right Wing
Conspiracy". In that document they traced just 3 sources for those
nasty stories in the media, one of which was the Western Journalism
Center. The document also devoted 5 pages to a bio of Joseph Farah. See:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=14927
I too once subscribed to the print version of
Insight, and often read the on-line version of the Washington Times. As a
long time news junkie I was quite aware of the ownership of those
publication by officials of the Unification Church. Like you I have not
seen any perceptible bias in their reporting.
That said, I have not seen the slightest hint that
there was any connection between the Unification Church and Joseph Farah
or World Net Daily.
World Net Daily appears to be one of the more
reliable conservative news sources on the Net. They seem less likely to
run after conspiracy theories than say News Max (although News Max seems
to be getting better).
http://www.newsmax.com/
Lastly let me again thank you for all you do. I have
read and enjoyed much of your fiction output, and read the print Byte for
years mostly for you and Steve Ciarcia. Your Pournelle Axes should be a
must read for anyone interested in politics. For anyone who has not seen
it, they can read it here:
http://www.baen.com/chapters/axes.htm
I discovered your website over a year ago and it
covers so many interesting topics that I had to subscribe (and renew).
Here's hoping you keep this up for many years to
come!
Ray A. Rayburn http://www.SoundFirst.com/
Thanks for the information and the kind words.
Jerry,
In reference to the earth-at-night and the Hubble
Deep Field images, your readers might enjoy this panorama of the Milky Way
at
http://apod.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010202.html
It's stitched together from 51 ground based
photographs, so it must be another fake ....
Randall Sluder
Thanks
"The question is, how much of that damage was done to the aircraft
by the heroic Chinese highly competent pilot who unfortunately lost his
life in carrying out his mission, and how much was done by the Chinese
removing parts of the airplane?"
As I'm sure you have already noticed on the photo,
the nose damage seems to have occurred somewhat suspiciously along the
standard radome field joint. I find it hard to believe that this was
knocked off in flight, and the plane still landed. You can bet this thing
has been stripped down to the bones by now.
The idea that this old bus "rammed" a
fighter jet is ridiculous. We all know who ran into who.
Tom Brosz
Precisely
And then this:
Hi Jerry,
I was just reading your latest Chaos Manor adventure
and you mentioned difficulty moving programs like Office 2000. It is well
and good to re-install but if you have any updates than keeping track of
that is a different matter. I have found Magic Mover from Powerquest a
good option. It comes with PartitionMagic and can do all the transfers
including over a network for programs like Office 2000. I once transferred
Macromedia's dreamweaver over the network to another machine using Magic
Mover.
Try it!! It saves a lot of headache.
regards
Pranav
I have used Partition Magic for a long time; I
should look into this, and I am not sure why I have not. Thanks.
And now this:
Subject: The hardware guys say celeron (in some
contexts)
I thought you might be interested in this (inner
page from a) review on anandtech.com. http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1447&;p=3
The review starts on http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1447
The quote that made me think of Jerry is...
"Pay attention to our use of the work peak in the previous sentence
because as we noticed in previous reviews, when paired up with either the
SiS 730S or VIA KM133 chipset, the Duron loses much of its performance
advantage over the Celeron. So if you're buying a pre-built system with
integrated video, the [100MHz FSB] Celeron 800 might actually be a better
option since its integrated video platform (i810E/815E) is much more
mature, however when building your own system we already know what the
better option is."
In other words, if you're buying a system instead of
building it, the Celeron on an 815E still has its place.
G Goss
Well, well, well. But of course I knew that...
Dear
Jerry,
I need help finding information on computers for the
visually impaired. I have 17 year-old neice who is about to leave for
college. She has macular dystrophy and is presently legally blind as
corrected, so she qualifies for federal aid. Her condition is degnerative
and progressive.
I just learned of this on Saturday and have been
working on financial aid for college (she'll attend College near her
home in North Carolina), including Social Security Disability, more than
computers. Your mail is the place to get this kind of computer information
from. I've located http://www.eyeinfo.org/computer.html
but haven't had time to check it out.
I've learned that there may be federal programs
which will help pay for computers for the visually impaired. She still has
some vision and can use her present old computer with her 19"
monitor, but that will change.
I'd really appreciate information on computer
accessories for the visually impaired, plus any federal programs that
might help pay for those. Paying for college _and_ significant first year
computer expense will be difficult.
I'll check your mail section regularly. This subject
might be worth keeping on for a while in Alt.mail too.
Tom
I have several readers with similar conditions,
and perhaps it would be better to collect their responses before I add my
own. Things change fast in this field.
The widow of an old friend now has to use an
electronic book reader -- she puts the book in the machine and it reads it
aloud -- but can see well enough to send email with a very large screen.
She's wealthy enough to afford anything she likes. But In fact I know very
little about this compared to what I ought to know, so I am soliciting
help from readers.
Now more on languages:
BASIC suffers from the same problem Pascal always
did: there are a million fragmented versions, and you can't simply run
your program under a different one. You would need to re-write your
program and debug it. Python is at least standard, and it runs on
everything from mainframes to Palm devices.
As for the characterization of Python as "Perl
Lite", I disagree completely. That's about like calling Pascal
"ADA Lite". Perl was not designed, so much as it was thrown
together. Perl programs are legendary for being difficult to figure out,
possibly because there are so many terse and non-obvious shortcuts.
Python, on the other hand, was designed as a clean and tidy language. Perl
is very popular, so there is a huge body of Perl code you can leverage to
get a job done; but for a casual user, I think Python has far fewer land
mines.
As one example, consider functions and their
arguments. In Perl, you can declare a function that takes 3 arguments.
Then, when you call the function, you get an array variable with a
standard name ("@_") and it will have the arguments in its first
3 positions. If you want the arguments to be called x, y, and z you can
then unpack the arguments from the array into 3 local variables called x,
y, and z. This arrangement makes it easy to write functions that take a
variable number of arguments, but doesn't lend itself to automatic error
checking, and if you are unlucky you might have to study someone else's
code where the functions just directly manipulate @_ and never bother to
unpack into named local variables. Python of course does things the more
usual way: if you declare a function with 3 arguments x, y, and z, then
your function takes 3 arguments and the arguments will be found in x, y,
and z.
Steve Hastings
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