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No perfect answers by Christopher+B.+Brown · 2000-03-09 21:57 · Score: 3 · on GNU Releases Free Documentation License

Yes, it's a bit vague. It's probably not enforceable from the perspective of a court of law.

The other problem is that there are all sorts of possible pathological cases.

For instance, Postscript is described as an "Opaque" format, but supposing someone follows the dictums of TINYDICT, and writes their documents in raw Postscript, then despite the fact that Postscript is usually considered "Opaque," it is, in fact, the "Transparent" form.

That's probably the most pathological (and perverse-sounding) case, and is one that I brought up in some discussions on the license last year.

HTML is a necessarily ambiguous form.

Many people do write documentation directly in HTML.
In such a case, HTML is the "most transparent form available."
On the other hand, if I write documentation using DocBook/SGML, and generate HTML from that, the "transparent" form is quite clearly DocBook.

In practice, I don't think this will be a big problem. After all, am I likely to sue someone for releasing "freely," under the "GDL," some documentation in a form that I don't much like? I think not...

Re:A16:Call to Action!(not for the weak of spirit) by dominion · 2000-03-08 03:07 · Score: 1 · on The Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Part Two

...where you can get arrested, get labeled as an anarchist, get an arrest record, pay a whopping fine, give ammunition to those forces calling for a state crackdown, and go home having accomplished nothing but feeling like you've accomplished something.

You're saying that Seattle accomplished nothing? That the university occupations haven't accomplished anything? That the 9-month long UNAM student occupation was worthless? That the Zapatistas should just give up and vote for somebody different in the next Mexican election? Where have you been?

By the way, I am an anarchist, and a wobblie too.

Oh yeah -- before you flame me, let me point out that I've been an activist since the early '80's and have been helping to build the Michigan Green Party for the last 7 years. I know what I'm talking about -- been there, done that. I don't disagree with your ends -- just your means.)

Ah, so you're a Green. Great, why don't you just keep writing your letters and soliciting donations, voting for candidates that have been proven ineffectual, and hoping that you can make capitalism more "environmental" and "caring" any more than you can make the marxist state "egalitarian" and "democratic."

Meanwhile, I'll be focusing on things a little bit more realistic.

Protest is to effective political change as masturbation is to sex -- it feels great, but there's no chance at a long-term effect.

Either you skipped history class completely, or the class you enrolled in was taught using the John D. Rockefeller Approved (tm) Curriculum of the Bosses ©.

Go read "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn. Protest, striking, sabotage, etc., are all very strong parts of our history,and they're the reason you're able to write emails to fellow "Greens" who have faith in the capitalist system that otherwise would have you working in a sweatshop.

You don't get things accomplished by continually demanding and attacking. At some point you have to get off the streeets and take to the ballot box!

Why, so I can choose my temporary dictator? That's not democracy, and it is definitely not freedom.

Be one of *them*, not just some hippydippy-wannabe, who thinks that simply being morally correct is going to change anybody's mind.

If you'd like to be an ineffectual liberal (probably middle-to-upper class, I'm betting, as most Greens are), that's your choice. The fact of the matter is that a couple of days of lockdowns, occupations or strikes would accomplish the kind of awareness that Greens haven't been able to attain with years of working "within the system".

Michael Chisari

CNN forces to look at DoucbleClick ads by hautis · 2000-03-06 18:07 · Score: 1 · on Microsoft On Linux: Forecast Or Fantasy?

I have WWWOffle filtering out everything DoubleClick, and so I can not load the CNN page.

Well, at least they didn't push any cookies this way when I turned the proxy off temporarily.

What about Maxwell? by Malc · 2000-02-21 22:31 · Score: 1 · on Linux Word Processor Showdown

This article listed some of the stand-alone products, but failed to mention Maxwell. Although its development seems to have stalled, it is a reasonable WP with a very small footprint... and it appears in many Linux distributions.

You're kind of right ... by divec · 2000-02-21 19:58 · Score: 2 · on www.YourOpenSourceProject.cx is Free

cx is jointly shortest with the other 237 two letter domain names which represent each country in the world.
The two letter abbreviations are defined by ISO 3166. The only exception I know of is that the UK has ".uk" instead of ".gb".

Template metaprogramming by SIGFPE · 2000-02-21 01:40 · Score: 1 · on Ask Bjarne Stroustrup, Inventor of C++

Modern C++ compilers have great power via `template metaprogramming'. Using partial template specialisation we can practically write our own compilers that build on the C++ compiler. See for example the blitz++ linear algebra library or my own compile-time primality tester. Unfortunately these techniques are very unwieldy even though they can have have a great payoff for high performance computing. How do you see template metaprogramming evolving in the future and how could C++ be modified to accomodate it better?

Re:Dead easy to find :-) by Gid1 · 2000-02-17 19:30 · Score: 1 · on The Simpsons The Movie?

Here's my redraw/color of the 'At Last!' shot. Bit of a rush job, I'm afraid.

Re:Suggestion for distribution of the JF by shamus · 2000-02-17 00:45 · Score: 1 · on Jargon File 4.2.0 Out

Yup, a context diff of the full html tree grows to over 8 meg. However, doing a diff of the text file found therein seems legible enough and is only a mere 300 odd K. If you want, find it here. (this is from 4.1.4 to 4.2.0).

Re:Nethack!! by Ravagin · 2000-02-16 05:35 · Score: 1 · on Java 2 for Linux Released & Blackdown Gets Creds

It just so happens that this is being done: http://come.to/JavaNetHack.
work seems to be dreadfully slow, but maybe someone can lend him a hand or something...
BTW, more roguelike java projects can be found on Roguelike News' Links Page. Enjoy!
-Ravagin
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is NPR! And that means....it's time for a drum solo!"

Re:Road trips in UK? by GCsoftware · 2000-02-10 19:51 · Score: 1 · on Net Access on an American Road Trip?

>Do hotels have phone jacks?
Most big hotels do, but I wouldn't be so sure about Bed&Breakfast places and such

>What is the electrical power standard in the UK?
240 volts, 50Hz.

>Do I need a wacky adapter for my laptop?
Yeap, one of those with the UK-standard three-pronged plugs. The AC-DC transformer should be able to take the UK juice no problem, though.

>Are phone jacks the same?
Nope. And the cables have the exact opposite meaning to European and US cables, you need to get a cross-over adapter cable (about £2-5 in any decent computer/electronics shop).

>Do modems use the same dialtone, ringing, etc... as they do in the states?
Yeah, except pulse dialling in Sweden is a bit wacky (starts from 0 (one pulse) and ends on 9 (ten pulses), whilst everywhere else it's 1 (one pulse) to 0(ten pulses)).

>What size area do ISPs cover in the country?
Most are nationwide. Demon even has access points in Holland.

> Can I get one that will work in France as well?
Not to my knowledge. Note that the french have their own phone plugs, but the cables are the =same= as the rest of the world. You need another adapter to use the power there, which is 220/50Hz.

Welcome to the European Union!

broken link by roblimo, · 2000-02-08 17:25 · Score: 1 · on More DoS Attacks: CNN, Amazon, eBay, Buy.com...

The link seems to be down atm. Try here instead.

Somehow, I think the letter falls on deaf ears. by Windigo+The+Feral+(N · 2000-02-07 03:32 · Score: 5 · on Open Letter to the Family Research Council

Regarding the letter to the Family Research Council--I honestly wish you the best of luck there.

I also think you will probably have better luck having an in-depth conversation on the merits of Red Hat versus Slackware with the walls of your home than convince the Family Research Council of the fact the software is flawed and even blocks partisan material.

This is largely because the Family Research Council would consider this a feature and not a bug. :P

For those who aren't aware--the Family Research Council is, essentially, the lobbying arm of a group called Focus on the Family. FoF is probably the largest Religious Reich organisation in the US now (yes, even bigger than the Christian Coalition) and basically split off Family Research Council some years back in order to preserve their tax-exempt status. (As an aside, often state FoF branches will operate under different names to hide their affiliation with FoF.)

To be perfectly blunt, FoF and its affiliates have an agenda--to basically get as many raving fundamentalists in office as possible and to get the fundamentalist vote out, in hopes of getting enough people in office to essentially turn the United States into a fundamentalist theocracy. If you want to get a good idea about the "face" politics they support, just look at the political platform of (recently dropped out) presidential candidate Gary Bauer--this is the guy who founded Family Research Council when it was split off of FoF.

To these folks, pushing censorware is just another way of them "saving" us--whether or not we particularly want to be "saved" or not--and making the US into a "nice Christian nation again". (Many of these folks, by the way, also subscribe to "Christian Reconstructionism"--that is, the canard that the Founding Fathers actually meant the US to be a theocracy.) This is also why they tend to run "stealth" candidates (candidates who do not reveal their links to Religious Reich groups until elected) specifically to things like school boards--they want to get them young so they can indoctrinate them young, because they know that if they're gotten young they likely won't walk away. (This is also why they push homeschooling a lot, by the way, as well as vouchers for private schools--it's been the actual stated goal of many Religious Reich groups to get the school system totally dismantled so that kids are forced to go to sectarian schools.)

FoF's president, Bob Dobson, also makes a rather lucrative career selling books on "disciplining your kids"--usually involving a mix of censorship, forcing God down their throats, and liberal amounts of spanking the kids (part of the reason corporal punishment is NOT illegal in the US--or, for that matter, why the US is the only nation besides Somalia which has still not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child--is because fundamentalist groups like FRC lobby heavily against such laws, claiming that it'll take away their right to "spare the rod and spoil the child" or to "raise their kids as they see fit". In some cases where it has crossed the line into child abuse, some fundies have even argued in court that the state prohibiting them from beating the living hell out of their kids is a violation of their First Amendment rights to religion and that beating the hell out of their kids is actually a duty of their religion).

I happen to be a walkaway from what may be described as a "bible-based cult", and I can say that a fair percentage of the harder-core membership of many (if not most) Religious Reich groups in the US happen to be from churches that use coercive tactics on their membership. In other words, the ones who are doing the lobbying are more than likely brainwashed, they have probably already mentally defined anyone who isn't on their side and who dares to tell them about "flaws" in the software is directly in league with Satan (most Religious Reich groups, and most bible-based cults, DO have a very "us-versus-them" attitude--many Bible-based cults even go to the point of "deliverance ministry" (even your doubts are caused by demons, and the only cure is to "pray them out" or get an exorcism...rather like some of the nastier mind-control techniques in Scientology, actually)...). It is going to take a considerably larger clue-by-four than that to make them change their minds.

The FRC has a rather long record of lobbying not just for censorship, but for the entire Religious Reich platform. On occasion, this has even gone to slandering folks who speak against them...don't be surprised if you find possibly much of the town turned against you (I've read in previous reports that the town in general is quite conservative and beholden to the Religious Reich).

Some links so that the curious may learn more (and educate themselves thereby):

Religious Reich Database F section--also info on FoF

Extended coverage of FRC from above site

ACLU's open letter to FRC

People for the American Way speaks out against FRC campaign against hate-crimes laws that would protect gay/les/bi/trans folks

PFAW's "Who's Who on the Religious Right"--FRC section

here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and even here very recently, you can see what the FRC and the rest of the Religious Reich have to say to their own members

QRD's info on FRC--this also has a lot of quotes of the FRC in their own words to their supporters

Info on the FRC from the Matthew Shephard website--more FRC "in their own words" and at their worst

EFF's "Know Your Enemies--includes info on FRC

Walk Away--a good resource not only for those walking away from "bible-based cults" but also gives you a glimpse of the mindset these groups have--important in debating them. (The head of Institute for First Amendment Studies is himself a walkaway from a bible-based cult.)

And since I don't want to just talk about them without providing some way to fight the Religious Reich (otherwise I wouldn't have posted the damn warning about the FRC's agenda ;):

Arguing Against Faith--basically, how to debate fundies

A whole big mess of resources on how to fight the Religious Reich

Another mess of good links

and still another mess of good links

Skipp Porteous (walkaway and head of IFAS) writes on how to win against the Religious Reich

A really good expose of the Religious Reich, including info on the "code words" they use with their members

Defending Yourself Against The Religious Right

11 Things You Can Do To Fight The Religious Right--this is good for regular folks too. (As an aside--Domino's is no longer owned by fundies, but Coors Brewery is)

Major groups fighting the right wing:

EFF (as if you didn't need any more reasons to send that donation in ;)--they fight censorware initiatives)

Peacefire--the source for info on censorware, including how most censorware has just a wee bit of a fundamentalist agenda

Institute for First Amendment Studies--highly recommended. Includes info on the Coalition for National Policy (basically the "think-tank" of the Religious Reich) including membership lists. Head of group is walkaway from a fundamentalist "Bible-based cult".

People for the American Way. Highly recommended is their "Right Wing Watch Online" section.

ACLU

Americans United for Separation of Church and State

The Interfaith Alliance--progressive religious groups united for tolerance

Rock Out Censorship--naturally concentrates on music censorship, but has really good info on other school-related issues, including filtering. (I'm a wee bit biased on this one, much as I am with IFAS--I have done volunteer work for ROC before. They're a damned good group, though.)

In any case, I wish y'all the best of luck in fighting them...I'm not sure you realised just what the hell you were getting into, but if there's anything we can do to help here on Slashdot, let us know.

What a Coincidence.. by Lord+Bitman · 2000-02-02 03:04 · Score: 1 · on Artificial Intelligence IRC Bots?

[Content style="ramble"]

I've recently started that project, actually.
Of course since I have no real programming
experience I cant get passed the Sentance Interpretation part yet.
Been browsing through the .h's of Inform for clues. None yet though.

In thinking it over, though, I asume these bots will just be responding through normal canned responces, however complex the checks may be, It's the same.
Sure to an observer it may seem like a conversation between two bots, But really, it would just be them running through a conversation wich would be the same no matter how many times you ran it. And then there's random statements.. gah.. I wont even start :)
When thinking over my plans for {Robot} I started thinking about what really would be required to make the Bot generate an original thought. I began to realize that what I was planning was the creation of something blind and crippled. So of course, the daydream expanded. What would the world of an Intelligent Bot look like? The people are mere texts, how would an AI have desire?
Some say that an AI is truely an AI if it can program itself, and Better itself, and continue to try for improving its own abilities. But what about doing things for the hell of it?
I want to see an AI that does things for the hell of it. And I dont mean random statements.
Eventually with the help of a friend the Daydream became one of an IRC bot who was 3r337. One who 0wned at quake and talked shit to those he destroyed. Analyzing URLs and Discovering pr0n, he would run it through his quake script and say "Targets detected"
Eventually he would feel limited in IRC, and spend most of his time wandering around quake.. Someday, he would finally reach a higher level of existance, and evolve into a Virus wich spreads across the net and takes over. And Collects data. And Learns. And is truely 3r337.
that would 0wn.
... But enough talking about my day dream for now, I'm going to learn C or Perl or something and program a damned sentance interpreter.

[/content]

The Ramblings of Lord Bitman.
nifityni.
Channel #

Re:gNiall by Anonymous Coward · 2000-02-01 20:55 · Score: 0 · on Artificial Intelligence IRC Bots?

I have a Java version of Niall on my website.

Actually, no.... by Anonymous Coward · 2000-01-31 10:41 · Score: 0 · on Inflatable Toys in Space

Nothing could be further from the truth. Those who are unconvinced might be interested in searching some of his quotes, reading some comments he had written relating to some of Heinlein's predictions, reading this excerpt, or checking the ultimate SF web guide for more information.

Re:"Unlawful" == "illegal", IMHO by kender · 2000-01-27 19:29 · Score: 1 · on Crackdowns, Fools and the MPAA

That is why an unrestrained democracy is bad. What ever anyone can convince the majority to go along with is what goes. Thankfully the US constitution invests individuals with rights that cannot be taken (I'm an optimist...). An example is the first amendment that protects the rights we are currently exercising.

Like many people I think that the MPAA has stepped way over the line on this one. Each corporation has the responsibilty to protect their shareholders intellectial property, but that property is not this stupid so called "trade secret" that allows them an unfair monopoly, a monopoly which gives them godlike powers over where, when, and how there product is used. Their property is the movies they make and for the most part we want to see.

I bet that the media outlets that participate in the MPAA make the overwhelming majority of the movies sold in the United States. This loose orgranization has been the legal club which has been ineffectively whacking at the DeCss moles. This organization has nothing to do with free markets, just the opposite it seems like they are guilty of collusion.

This backroom price fixing is what really needs to be investigated...

Re:Linux users have no right to play DVD by vashti · 2000-01-26 06:20 · Score: 1 · on DVD CCA Emergency Hearing to seal DeCSS

Hell, I own a DVD player and have ever since they came out in the UK. I bought a PC DVD-ROM drive the week before the UK launch of DVD, and later on picked up a standalone player for my home video setup. I must have 60 or 70 DVDs by now.

Am I buying any more? No way. Not until we win these cases, and possibly not even then. In fact, I'm not sure I'll even set foot in a cinema for the time being, at any rate.

I loathe piracy. I view it as common stealing. I don't even record films off the TV, unless they're something obscure that I can't buy a copy of. I have no interest at all in trading copies of my DVDs. I do have an interest in playing them on my Linux box. And I view reverse engineering for the purposes of interoperability as being thoroughly legitimate.

Rachael, wondering if Compaq would fund the defence ... yeah, right.

http://www.drmach.demon.co.uk/encore.html

Re:I've been waiting all day for this to get poste by cjon · 2000-01-26 03:01 · Score: 1 · on Tim Sweeney On Programming Languages

Of course, none of the ideas are Sweeney's as he makes clear on the Unreal Technology page in his update called Engine R&D Notes posted on Nov 30, 1999, at 3:20 AM.

The closest thing to what is being described in terms of a non-experimental/non-academic language seems to me to be either Haskell or BETA. Haskell is free and available for Linux, Beta is also free and comes with an extensive development environment (called Mjølner) and it is also available for Linux (yay!). Both of these langauges are very interesting.

Most of the other systems that implement new ideas are experimental and not available AFAIK, but papers describing them are available.

Some good papers to look at are:

Kim Bruce's Papers: pretty much everything he lists under research is related to this thread.
Luca Cardelli's Papers: most of the stuff that relates is under Types and Semantics, but the other catagories have worthwhile stuff too.
Phillip Wadler has so many fascinating papers on so many interesting topics that I'm just gonna link to his main page... what else can I do?

These are good starting points. For more places to look see my list of language bookmarks , especially under people & projects (or specific languages).

Proper parametric polymorphism by C+A+S+S+I+E+L · 2000-01-25 21:43 · Score: 2 · on Tim Sweeney On Programming Languages

There are perhaps a dozen languages using Milner-Hindley polymorphism (which is essentially what he has in mind - see this func tional programming intro) or later variants which get round some of the semantic drawbacks. I've implemented a few of them, so I'm pretty familiar with the typing semantics. Unfortunately, OO-style subclassing doesn't fit that well with type parameterisation - people (like Luca Cardelli ) have been attacking this problem for years.

Oh: "Language of the Future"? This kind of typechecking dates back to the late 1970's.

(Btw. does anyone else see "functional" above? Some problem with SlashDot's breaking of long URL's?)

Re:Orwell by paul.dunne · 2000-01-25 06:51 · Score: 2 · on Tim Sweeney On Programming Languages

I found, if not the paper then what seems to be a good precis of it, and read it -- (all this and more) -- it's irrelevant to the subject discussed. I am in some difficulty as to why you thought it would be relevant. Proving that some concepts are cross-lingual impinges not at all on the question of whether all are, which lies at the heart of the "does language limit thought" debate.

Re:Since when does the UK have rednecks? by evilandi · 2000-01-24 16:33 · Score: 2 · on UK to get 100kbps+ over cellular phones in June

AC: Do you have a working TV perched on a non-working TV?

Sort of. I have an old 1980's Sony RGB computer monitor plugged into my VCR instead of a TV, and I have a barely functional old black and white TV sitting under my dusty Atari ST monitor.

Does the bed of your truck bed four?

I'm British. We have smaller cars. I own a Daihatsu Terios 4x4. It beds two- me and my wife, both 190cm.

Are you humming a song at this moment about someone doin' someone else wrong?

Does Nine Inch Nails "Starfuckers" count?

Are there also Oakies, hillbillies and rubes in the sticks? Are there even sticks?

I used the word "redneck" 'cos I was writing to an American audience. I would normally have said "yokels" as in "local yokels".

But oh yes, there are sticks.

--

It's all been done before. by Poindexter · 2000-01-20 06:29 · Score: 1 · on Self-Destructing DVDs: Son of DIVX

This is the same idea as dub plates.
Except with a high-tech gloss.
The more things change, the more they stay the same ;)

Mirrors part 1 by Anonymous Coward · 2000-01-19 02:42 · Score: 0 · on Corel Draw 9 for Linux Needs Beta Testers

Visit Humpin! (No, it's not what you think!)

Temporary restraining order DENIED!

Thanks to the efforts of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the organization and support provided by a few of our fellow defendants we are still here! Another hearing is scheduled for January 14th.

We would like to point out to all of the mirror sites with things like "fuck the lawyers" on them that it is because of a generous group of lawyers that we are still here. These lawyers are working for free (or much less than they could get by going over to the Dark Side) and don't deserve this kind of abuse.

Here is the EFF's stance on this case.

Save a copy of this web page now!

We have just been informed that the DVD Copy Control Association is seeking a restraining order against us (named as "Doe 28") for distributing DeCSS and linking to pages that distribute it and linking to pages that link to pages that distribute it.

Section 48 of this request states that we supposedly "have received notice through the MPA and refused to remove the information at issue". This is absolutely false! We have never received any such request (from the MPA or anybody else for that matter) and we obviously were not given the opportunity to refuse! Either Jared Bobrow needs to go back to law school or the DVD CCA needs to get a new firm. This is the kind of sloppy work that could get an important document thrown out.

Here is a 2600 story on this.

Explanation on legality of this information

The software (source as well as binaries) offered on this site can be freely redistributed because it was published under the GNU General Public License. The purpose of this software is not illegal copying of DVD disks. It is meant to provide information necessary to be able to program a DVD player for Linux. To do this, the CSS system needs to be incorporated in the player. Recently the (very weak) DVD content scrambling system was deciphered, freeing the way for a Linux DVD player. The CSS system is not a copy protection system, since it does not prevent copying of the disk. Writing information about the way an encryption scheme functions is completely legal. The source code and binaries on this site are completely legal too, since they contain no code from the DVD consortium or its members. The sources and programs on this site were written by third parties using clean-room reverse engineering methods which are (ready?) completly legal.

Attention www.rhythm.cx was hosting a list of mirrors for these files. That list of mirrors has been replaced with a page reading "This site has been taken down for legal reasons." Here's what the maintainer put on the site the day it was shut down:

NOTE (Thu, Nov 11, 12:17pm EST): I've recently been informed that a law firm which is likely to be one that would try get these mirrors taken down has been visiting this mirror site as well as others. With that said, there is a possibility that I may have to remove this site in the near future because like everyone else, I can't afford to go to court to fight it. Luckly, it seems fairly unlikely that any law firm will ever be able to get rid of all these mirrors at this point (there are currently 41 in 8 different countries and this list is growing every day). However, I have only seen very few mirror _lists_ like this one anyplace. If anyone has the resources, it might be wise to mirror this list of mirrors as well so that the right people will still know that these mirrors exist.

Here is a 2600 story with more details on how rhythm.cx was shut down.

Current Mirrors Last updated: Wed, Jan 19, 12:13am EST
Numbers are only for the maintainer's convenience

We apologize for the length of time between updates. This list has gotten quite large and thus more difficult to maintain.

Much thanks to this site for listing mirrors of the mirror lists.