Owocki Dot Com - Latest Comments

Re: Information Addiction

Eric Saber — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 14:45:05 -0000

Great article Kevin! As an aspiring minimalist, this has totally been on my mind as of late too.

Re: Engineer Mind

Alan VanToai — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 01:04:07 -0000

One could argue is that change requests are just another form of inspiration... ;)

Re: Engineer Mind

Kevin Owocki — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:14:49 -0000

Do artists get change requests though? It seems like a primary differentiator between artists and engineers is that artists (at least in the classical sense) get inspiration. Engineers get change requests.

Re: Engineer Mind

Alan VanToai — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 14:39:34 -0000

Substituting "engineer" with "artist" works elegantly.

Re: Engineer Mind

Kevin Owocki — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 13:51:48 -0000

Hey Bas - Thanks for stopping by!

Re: Engineer Mind

basdirks — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 13:26:26 -0000

"Your task is to take the the unknown and build it into the known. You will manifest an idea. Most people have never had such an opportunity to create — Breathe it in."
Shit, real thinking and the obliteration of cynicism, on a developer blog. Wonderful article!

Re: Hey Google, Gmail is Awfully Slow!

Mike — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:07:58 -0000

Unfortunately I made the mistake of setting up 8 companies on google apps for business. The support is terrible and speed and connectivity issues on all services (docs, gmail, etc) are constant. I do not recommend google apps for anything other than personal use.

Re: Hey Google, Gmail is Awfully Slow!

Kris — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:47:26 -0000

slow, unresponsive and frustrating. I would wait a little loger and then consider to switch.

Re: 10 Internet Giants, 10 Years ago

Kite Flyer — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:36:01 -0000

This is good! Iove twitter and youtube myself! :D
http://beam.to/makeinternet...

Re: 6 Tools to Quantify your Life

Blossom — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:36:17 -0000

have you tried wakoopa. it tracks your usage of software...

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

Christopher Karl Johansen — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:38:04 -0000

New idea: turn the principle (proven in law) of the "shrinkwrap/click-thru" agreement on its head. Include boilerplate at the bottom of the edit; something like "By enabling the 'accept button' you accept these modified terms. If you do not accept these modified terms, do not enable the accept button."

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

Patrick Scott — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 22:57:35 -0000

I'll take disqus over facebook connect or an individual site registration any day!

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

Nobody Special — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 23:04:34 -0000

IANAL, but wouldn't both parties have to agree to the *original* terms before they are valid? I would think that this would at the very least remove the 'implied consent' argument from the validity of the initially proffered contract, which has been relied upon heavily to force users (who generally have had no recourse to alter the terms of the contract) to accept it as stated.

Even if the user-modified terms can't be enforced, I think it would make it much tougher to enforce the initial terms, which would still be a win in the consumer column.

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

Rainyday Superstar — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 20:20:13 -0000

Very interested in whether or not this will hold up in court. It's a great idea....I'm loving it already

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

Codewarrior77006 — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 12:57:23 -0000

What might satisfy the 'consideration' aspect of your TOS modification program is if it also sent the modified version to an email address on the host site that was know to be read by a 'real person' such as a 'contact us' or 'support' address. If the TOS modification email was preceded with a header such as:

**** TERMS OF SERVICE COUNTER OFFER ****

**** IMPORTANT LEGAL DOCUMENT ENCLOSED ****

or some such language. That plus a clause in the modified contract like:

"...your lack of response within (a reasonable time period) constitutes your acceptance of these modifications..."

then, it might work.

At least you've given them the opportunity to write back and say no. I'm not a lawyer but I know that somebody telling me my inaction affirms my agreement causes me to act.

Of course, it will probably take a judge and a series of appellate decisions to make the final determination of this process's validity.

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

Boogster Su — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 12:04:41 -0000

"I agree that I like ham sandwiches." lol

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

DrPlokta — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 01:49:49 -0000

Use of this applet obviously doesn't indicate that the company has accepted your modified terms -- but does it suffice to indicate that you have not accepted the original terms, despite clicking on the "Accept" button?

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

Justicia — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 23:48:03 -0000

No offence, but I'm wondering how a 2nd year law student can't immediatly spot the problems in this.

A last-shot (or battle of forms) scenario such as the one above simply won't work for computers, as it wouldn't work for saleclerks, because they are not authorised (or capable, in the case of computers) of accepting or renegotiating the amended contract.

In the same way that you can't rewrite an insurance policy or mobile phone contract in a store and expect to have it enforced because the salesperson didn't understand what you'd done, you can't say that a server, which does nothing more than process acceptances of the original EULA, can consider the changed terms. As consideration is the touchstone to contract validity, it would collapse before we even got to any of the other, superfluous points.

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

Chris Epler — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 22:30:08 -0000

Usually one of my cats or one of my 2 yr olds agrees to the terms when I'm not looking.

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

Zach Stein — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:21:57 -0000

In general from my understanding of contract revisions, both parties must agree to the the terms that are stricken or changed before the stricken terms are valid.

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

Justicia — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:09:35 -0000

This is completely meaningless I'm afraid.

Reddit : http://www.reddit.com/r/law...

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

Kevin — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 18:42:33 -0000

Lair,

I've just created a github repo for this project. If you truly are interested in contributing, drop me a line (ksowocki at gmail) and we'll work out what the project will look like.

https://github.com/ksowocki...

Kevin

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

Bobsaget — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 17:53:49 -0000

If you want to hide the end grain of a board, a miter joint is the joint to make. Miter joints are used for picture frames, door and window trim, and around openings. Miter joints are weak joints - probably weaker than butt joints. Miter joints are a form of butt joints, with the angle at the corner halved between the two pieces being joint.

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

joe — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 17:12:17 -0000

Thanks for passing the post along. I'd love to hear what your professor thinks when she takes a look.

Re: TOSAmend: The easy way to modify web service Terms of Service agreements

joe — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 17:11:37 -0000

Thanks for stopping by Alex.