Aeoxic's comments

You could buy a VPS and set up the appropriate software (mailserver, web client, etc.) and offer free registration for that.

"A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."

The wording actually results in "under penalty of purjury" to modify the succeeding part of the sentence, not the preceding part. As a result, the penalties only apply if you act on behalf of another party without authorization.

Penalties would apply for mislabelling content as copyright infringing as well as acting without authorization if the requirement was this along the lines of "a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."

I'll look into cleaning everything up a bit and formalising reporting and perhaps release it properly.

A lessons-learned whitepaper would be radical, I'll chat to a few of the people that I run this with and see what they think.

I manage a private combination of communications bulletins and attack monitoring for a couple of smaller communities / organisations that get attacked on the regular (mostly hosting providers and gaming organisations). I've been considering letting it go invitation-only public.

That's great, except forks can be merged later.

Real programmers use cat: http://xkcd.com/378/.

> It's not all that different to the advantages of vertically integrating iTunes/iOS/Apple Ax-based hardware.

It's different due to the fact that Internet is a "utility" now in the same way gas, electricity and water are (isn't it considered a human right in the USA now?). An Apple iPhone is not in any way a utility, and its functionality can be made up, 1:1 (fanboyism aside, thank you) by another device. iTunes (the store) is not a utility, and its functionality can be made up, 1:1, by purchasing CDs or using Google Play / Spotify / Rdio. iTunes (the app) is not a utility for obvious reasons.

Yes Apple locks you into an ecosystem, however that ecosystem is not a fundamental "requirement" to function as a business. There's simply no replacement for the Internet and, in a lot of places, there's no replacement for $ISP.

I'm curious here, is Google actually in a position where it's breaking what is commonly understood as antitrust laws by abusing its position? Are the actions that are defined as "abuse" actually Google abusing their position, or simply utilising it as a market advantage?

More or less, except Britain is currently experiencing the aftershock of David "Think of the Children" Cameron and his band of privacy-hating merrymen. While Verizon was caught out recently tracking users and Comcast maybe does the same, at least they don't forcibly restrict you from using HTTPS.

> I always just ask them to charge me a surcharge instead. Some places "get it", but a few have stared at me blankly. I don't want to a) walk back down the street to an ATM or b) buy a bunch of pastries that I don't want to eat just to pad out my bill.

Most stare at me blankly and then tell me they can't do that.

You type the value in yourself. It's not difficult. Do it.

First you guys make us look like idiots with our Internet capability, and now with the transaction charges. Slow down a bit and let us catch up, yeah?

> On the other hand there are a lot of shops that either have a minimum transaction size, or a surcharge, on Credit Card transactions.

That also happens here in Australia. I'm fairly sure that's common worldwide.

> There is no reason not to pay for even the most trivial purchase with EFTPOS so I haven't carried cash around in my entire life.

Unfortunately, there is a reason to still carry some cash in Australia: EFTPOS minimums. Airport stores are notorious for this, but it's quite widespread.

"Oh sorry, we have a $10 minimum on EFTPOS."

"... You're a coffee shop."

This stemmed from the fixed price per charge being charged to the merchants. The less you pay, the higher percentage that charge is of the total bill you're paying, resulting in them making slightly less profit.

In reality, those charges have been abolished by almost all, if not all, banks in Australia. It's now just a game of trying to make you buy $7 worth of miscellaneous stuff for your coffee. No thanks, I'll go elsewhere.

> More business graduates gravitating to the "tech" field full of useless piffy advice peddling themselves and their shoddy unoriginal offerings.

Ah yes, the "self-made entrepreneurial IT consultants".

> the 10 year life of XMPP.

I really wish XMPP was more prominent than it is. It's an incredibly powerful protocol.