Connections that won't, upgrades that can't, hot syncs that don't, standards that never are, wireless transmitters radiating who knows what. ... Hephaestus was the Greek god of fire and crafts, which is to say technology. Tellingly enough, he was born lame. His greatest creation was Pandora. Hephaestus sent her -- at his father Zeus's request -- to plague mankind. She was beautiful. But she sought knowledge. So she opened up a box that had been entrusted to her. Out leapt the plethora of ills that afflict humanity. All that was left inside was hope. ... http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23937-2001Mar18.html (found on /.) ... "There'd be different legal categories of software. If you want to rush it to market, and have first-mover advantage and see what happens, fine. You could label it creative software. But much of your code will be open to the public." If you want to build a business empire, however, and you want the government to throw itself into protecting your copyrights, in Lanier's scheme you would then have to label your product "firmware." "If you see this thing is taking off, you have the right to say: This is no longer creative software. This is functional. This has utility. "But once you do that, you owe me a buck every time it crashes." Oleg. ---- Oleg Broytmann http://phd.pp.ru/ phd@phd.pp.ru Programmers don't die, they just GOSUB without RETURN.