41–50 of 128 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds like exactly the Affero GPL.
Whew, I confused those. Thanks for pointing that out
AGPL is “GPL for SaaS”.
Expecting groups of people (tech companies or government) to purposefully do something that is disadvantageous to their bottom line, for nothing more than ideals, is a pipe dream. The real question is personal and harder to answer: "Do I really need this information technology? Is it making my quality of life any better than my ancestors?" The more I ponder this question, the more I'm convinced I could live an equall…
Expecting groups of people (tech companies or government) to purposefully do something that is disadvantageous to their bottom line, for nothing more than ideals, is a pipe dream. The real question is personal and harder to answer: "Do I really need this information technology? Is it making my quality of life any better than my ancestors?" The more I ponder this question, the more I'm convinced I could live an equall…
Well, the example given here is Transport for London, which is almost impossible to travel without using an Oyster smart card. So yes, pushing for legislation along the lines proposed in the article would make sense.
I agree that it's a good ideal, it's just incredibly naive to think that it will be achieved. Even if legislation were passed, it would very likely make things worse, in that the government wouldn't stop surveilling - they would just do it even more covertly.
Ironically, the article is published under a non-free license.
So you can distribute this freely, as long as you acknowledge the author. And since it's content, not software, it's not imperative to allow modification. (Fair use still applies to critical responses)
You're being way too picky.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To add to this, what if the vending machine was able to dispense 1000 things? And let's say that you are diabetic? Wouldn't it be nice if the sugar-free treats were easy for you to find? And the organic stuff easier for those seeking them to find? Etc. etc. Somewhere there must be an intelligent balance.
> Somewhere there must be an intelligent balance In practice though this is mostly biased towards the revenue of the company selling the goods, not towards your health requirements.
I wish we could find a way to apply the model of the vending machine to mass commerce. A vending machine doesn't make notes of who buys its products. A vending machine doesn't keep logs of its transactions or of the payment methods used. A vending machine does not make "recommendations" of what the consumer might like based on their past purchases. You give the vending machine a dollar, it gives you a soda. The trans…
I think the real problem is doing the same thing at a distance. At a store you know where to find the entity you purchase from in case of issues and you get a receipt at the same time you purchase. You can sort of get the same thing with an individual face-to-face, but only if there is an established trust in some form (buyer has to trust they can find the seller if something goes wrong, seller has to trust buyer isn't using counterfeit money, etc). It's pretty hard to trade at a distance without revealing something about your self. At the very least, there's going to be a middle man that will want to know something (a lot) about you if they're going to provide you services (P.O. Box, shipping company, etc). They want to make sure customers stay honest so they don't get in trouble when customers scam each other or make an illegal trade.
It all comes down to trust. I think all the retailers, on and off line, are blatantly violating that trust when they sell our data off, but not enough people seem to care or have a better alternative, so there are no consequences for retailers. New law is usually the last thing I want to see, but it seem to the only way to introduce a consequence for sellers at this point.
When I'm using that social networks interface, I put the USB stick in my computer - and my computer makes that data available to the network. Then, when I'm done using it, I turn off the interface, take the USB stick out and put it in storage somewhere. The only parts of the data that are available, are the bits I copied to the social network while I was using it, and it can have those bits while I'm away to do with as it pleases.
I truly believe this is a function and responsibility of the local operating system, not the network.
If only the OS vendors were paying attention to these issues instead of .. you know .. trying hard to be the next big social network.
The real issue is that people opt to ignore Stallman - he was right. By opting to use these services, whether you pay for them or not, you're acquiescing to being the product.
Expecting groups of people (tech companies or government) to purposefully do something that is disadvantageous to their bottom line, for nothing more than ideals, is a pipe dream. The real question is personal and harder to answer: "Do I really need this information technology? Is it making my quality of life any better than my ancestors?" The more I ponder this question, the more I'm convinced I could live an equall…
Well, the example given here is Transport for London, which is almost impossible to travel without using an Oyster smart card. So yes, pushing for legislation along the lines proposed in the article would make sense.
My 'solution' to not being tracked is that the Smartrip Card I was forced to then buy was bought with cash, and has only ever been refilled with cash.
So their systems know that card # 828272823 (made up number) has traveled here or there (I don't use it much, so there's not many trips on it anyway) but they don't know 'who' is using that card.
If they ever drop the ability to use cash to top up the card, then the card will go in the garbage bin and I'll not ride the system again.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sorry, but you are unfortunately wrong. Some colleagues are involved in the development of a vending machine that does all those nasty things. And I think there are similar products already deployed.
I think the point is that a vending machine doesn't need to do all those things to fulfill its purpose. Dollar goes in, soda comes out. Yes you can make a vending machine do that, but that's not the point.
Is its purpose to provide an oasis of snacky goodness to those who happen to encounter it while passing through? If so, then yes, all it needs is dollar in, item out.
I'd argue, though, that vending machines that are in places where they are regularly encountered by the same people over and over again, such as vending machine in office buildings, dorms, schools, and such have a higher purpose.
They are to provide those who live or work near them a snack safe space. A place they can count on to take a quick break from their work day and find their favorite snacks.
A vending machine that could keep track of regular customers and their snacking habits could better fulfill that purpose. For instance, suppose Carol from accounting only ever buys Tab, and the machine is running low on Tab. Dave from marketing likes Dr. Pepper best, with Pepsi a close second, and only rarely buys anything else.
Dave tries to buy the last Tab (perhaps by mistake). The smart vending machine could recognize that it would be better to reserve the last Tab for Carol, and could tell Dave, "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't vend that to you. Would you like a Dr. Pepper or Pepsi instead?".
The future didn't give us the flying cars and jetpacks we were promised, but at least it can give Carol from accounting a reliable Tab supply at work.