Viewing profile — timwiseman

Generally, the DMCA could limit a copyright holder's claims against a website for user generated content to the takedown notice. But the person who posted it can still be fully lia…

I think it is very rarely possible to blame anyone for the suicide of another. Aaron's death was tragic, but it was not the prosecutor's fault. With that said, if this event is som…

"The law should be the same for everybody and should NOT be applied selectively." It depends on how the selection is done. If a prosecutor declines to prosecute because the law bre…

Solving your own problems can be a great source of inspiration. But if your goal is get your project widely used, you need to make sure others share that problem. Sometimes asking …

A beautiful comment and I think you add a lot of good thoughts. I must respectfully disagree with one point though: "my job is not programming. My job is delivering value using pro…

I prefer to lean towards overcommenting, and I prefer that developers whose code I will have to work with later do the same. But as you say, they need to be good comments, and comm…

It depends on what you mean. I am a law student now, and while my perspective may shift when I graduate, I have had some tangential involvement in projects that that help people, t…

It seems there is a disagreement as to what constitutes depth. If you want a "Sandbox" then most old-school RPGs will feel very shallow. You have numerous choices, but exploration …

I am not a lawyer, but my understanding is the courts would see a distinction. Kickstarter goes out of its way to try to make sure people understand that it is not a preorder servi…

This is an insightful comparison, but its significant to know that it is not actually a preorder. When you preorder you are entitled to demand the product or your money back, but w…

This is true to a degree, but there are ways you can use multiple tools mixed and matched. For a simple example, I might write my prototype in Python. After profiling I might decid…

Entirely fix it? It can't. Limit it? Certainly. When they have a law that seems on first reading to say what the employer says it does, then the employer can show it to the employe…

As always you bring great insight into this, but what your reply does not mention is that the average laymen knows none of this. Having such a law on the books means that a boss, c…

I do not believe we want such a system even if it were possible. Many things involve context (it is illegal to murder someone, but a killing in the context of self-defense is often…

I agree with your core points: Passwords are not enough for accounts that need to be secure. But one thing that a lot of this glosses over is that different accounts need different…

You make an excellent point, but when working in Python there are advantages to tying in to tools that are also written in Python. They will tend to be easier to integrate into you…

Well said. I make use of social networks to stay in touch with old friends and extended family that I would have difficulty staying in touch with otherwise. This is indeed shallow …

I got my degree in math and learned to program mostly on my own (1 introductory CS class in highschool and another in college). The degree has served me well both in terms of havin…

Google has historically both been reliant on fair use and the public domain and has defended such in court. I'm not saying they did it out of altruism, but substantial precedents t…

I apologize if it wasn't clear: He could offer a percentage of profits to his employees/contract coders that work on making this in addition to their salaries/contract pay. He coul…

Same. I have many ideas for interesting products. These ideas are not of value in themselves and I'll happily hand most of them off for the asking (I would in fact back in kickstar…

I'd have been worried about any in which the project's owner and visionary isn't a coder himself I'm of mixed feelings. As a programmer and DBA myself, I would certainly find it go…

You have a point, but remember that he had substantial work on the game finished before he turned to kickstarter, so he wasn't trying to make a whole game on $28K. Also, unless som…