Slashdot Mirror

There is a brief mention of this on the Apple hot news page:

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/

But the press release is here: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2001/may/21display .html

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

I can see "Community Standards" declaring certain political believes as obscene or something. As a way to stomp on something uncomfortable, like a kids school satire site.

Here's you can of worms folks

enjoy!

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

It is could to remeber that the Supreme Court often passes judgement not on the basis of c"common Sense" but on the basis of legal principles, no matter how arbitrary or "tort"ured the reasoning. As seen in the news report:

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction because the law violated free-speech rights, saying site operators had no effective way of screening out minors and ruling that the law probably was fatally flawed.

The appeals court upheld the injunction. It specifically objected to the law's reliance on ``contemporary community standards'' and said Web site operators would be unable to determine the geographic location of site visitors using a worldwide computer network.

To comply with the law, operators would have to severely censor their Web sites or would have to adopt age or credit card verification systems to shield minors from material deemed harmful ``by the most puritan of communities in any state,'' the appeals court said.

So there is a reasonable that that the decision could go the way many here would support.

It's time to spin the big lottery wheel of justice. Where is it going to land this time?

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

according to the article, Liquid Nitrogen is about 10 cents a liter.

this looks like the first run for power transmission over superconducting lines. So even if this is break even otherwise, there is a bonus in the practical experience you would gain just in maintaining the thing. Little stupid things like "apply rubber hammer here" stuff.

so it is worth while just for that

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Some CEOs think Paradise for Business is when they have the customer locked into their product, with now way out. Not that we know of anyone like this.

But there is definitely an elitist viewpoint out there, and inside club for some of these types. I was speaking the other day to may MIS manager, and he recalled dealing with an Upper Level Manager (TM) whose attitude was that if you didn't come from the right kind of school, then you were scum and disposable.

Whether you know it or not, for some people, there is a caste system, in their own minds, and it is good because they are on top. And if you aren't part of it, well too bad. You were not born lucky.

This leads us to the viewpoint of "We can do what we want"; it is just that there is less of a social veneer to the whole thing, so that they are being less hidden about it. It is more in the open, because they feel that there is nothing to stop them. Most of the public have been tamed and domesticated. The wild (but educated) Human is a rare breed indeed these days.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

The real question is if Whistler will support more than 26 partitions on a single disk.

While apparently yes, why would you need more than 1 partition per MS OS? And why wouldn't you need more than the latest and greatest MS OS on your system. (recalling a certain comment about 604K)

Why I can see the benefit and logic to expanding and changing out the partition system. Anything with MS finger prints makes me glad I am getting better with *nix boxes. not prejudiced, of course, just my opinion based on the past track record. Of course you could put any partition system you want on a box, or make one up. The question is what would run on it.

It would be cool if the *nixen could read all partition systems, instead of locking one out of one system vs another. Of course it is just easier if you have a 64 bit OS to deal with a 64bit file system, instead of having to be completely backwards compatible. Less work.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Since Titan is larger than the moon but maybe half the diameter of Earth, the surface gravity should be about 1/4 to 1/3 that of earth (a wild guess). With an atmosphere, it is probably just a matter of temperature if anyone is home. The other thing is that, being farther out in the solar system, it probably doesn't get the protection we do of larger planets to suck in asteroids that might otherwise hit us. They probably get hit more often.

Although there might be enough resources otherwise for a mining operation. It could be relatively easy to pull oxegen from the atmosphere, etc if someone wanted to put a base there.

I figure that we'll be out there in maybe 300 - 400 years. This based on the idea that it took maybe 500 years to get the New world under total control, and so I project another time period of similar size (500 to 1000 years) to expand out across the Solar System

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

I think the cartoon says it all.

Actually, the initial proposed usage is "innocent enough" But it would be interesting to see what it shows.

Obviously most users of the device would not say that they watch the pron channel, for example. Just a social thing. But this is Australia, where that sort of thing is popular despite the government getting all weirded out about it (such as with internet pron)

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

The 3d aspect is in a common size screen in a depth of several inches. It is not in substantial depth and it is not a cube. It is also not wrap around. It is likely bett for Sales presentations than games

A far better rig would be wrap around high rez goggles with a fast enough refresh rate that it doesn't fry your eyeballs. Or else the classic three panel wrap around monitor that gets mentioned here every once in a while.

It sounds cool until you try to figure out just how you would use it.

FPS would suck, but the stragegy games, such as a galactic empire, etc, would like be okay

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

since Palm laid of 250 people at the end of march, it is not surprising that they would continue to have problems.

Part of the the problem is the same one that has been the plague of the next market. Some of it simply running out of cash for silly business plans, but some of it is irrational pessimism, in large part due to the FUD from politicians. These folks certainly deserve a portion of the blame for the business climate.

It has gone so far that you have stories like this one that I first spotted at the Register, commonly titled "Death of the Web Inevitable". This is shear bullocks, as the real story is the possible look of the WWW, version 2.0, named in the story as the "X Internet" - but the FUD Masters got to put their spin on it.

The market has evaporated because there are not so many people out there looking for the best toys to get the job done, when the problem was not so much the toys, but getting the job done.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Well the original link is to the main computer page. you can see the basic specs here and slightly more expanded specs Here

I note that the low end model is not all that bad, and costs 1500 USian.

what is not mentioned is whether or not this has "advanced technology" to make it fully compliant with MPA and RIAA legal restrictions.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Several Bad(tm) thoughts (forgive me, it must be the tequila hangover from last night):

Don't give it to NASA, that's the place you send stuff you want to kill off.

We could put put bunches of this stuff along the desert near the US Mexican Border. Not only will we get power, but since the facilites each cover a mile or two, they will act as a natural wall stopping illegal immigration

Yes I know it's sick.

Quit it already with the baseball bats

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Of cours, you don't have to be life like to have good entertainment.

A good example of this is this stick figure fight kungfu link someone sent me:

http://games.sohu.com/fightgame/fight3.swf

in this case there is no surface texture, it is all stick figures, but the body motion and all the rest is right.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

I recall reading someplace that the producers deliberately made the animated characters less "life like" because it didn't feel right for a fairy tale.

but god help me find the link now out of all of the random bits I've read over the past month

;-)

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

the PBS show NOVA had something on the mummies in China (original air date January 18,1998). See the Transcript online here

All kinds of neat things, photos, etc, and you can probably order the video too.

The original story linked above looks like the human interest story of the archeologist and the political interests in China made it relevant as a story, as far as the newspaper editors were concerned.

I can see the Chinese government trying to deal with politically inconvenient truths.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Second Thought:

American Cuisine???

Competition over a Macdonalds menu? or the best Pizza and Beer combo?

the mind boggles.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Even worse, the competition will be between two Vulcan chiefs

Imagine Vulcan color commentary.

This could be bad, or really good camp.

Scotty - Beam me out of here!

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

I'm betting that any other gamehack who just read this article (and there are 90,000 potential gamehacks reading slashdot on any given day) can whack up something with the same user-selectable-parallel-universe model in a couple of months, if not a couple of weeks.

Which is why the market is saturated with the product right now.

;-)

But seriously, This is something I look forward to. Anytime a serious artist in the field puts together something, especially a start from scratch thing, I'll at least check it out. With enough expertise, a career in this field should go 50 or 60 years of jaw dropping products.

This could be fun.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

We need another position to counter act the positioning of GPL as Viral. Because this is not quite the case

In fact Microsoft marketing is Viral, because it precludes the options of other solutions, where GPL allows for as many solutions as you desire.

Correctly identifying the infection verse the AntiBodies is very important

GPL acts as an AntiBody against certain infections.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

We have this rocket, see

and it has more bureaucrats producing more paperwork than ever before, just to get it launched.

we want you to ride on it

right . . .

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Well, the question arises of copyright issues to your own name, image, and personality.

That is sort of what has made a movie star or artist important. If there are no copyrights for things like this, then why would anyone want to be an artist?

or do we get to run the acting characteristics of actors of the past 100 years of film history through an OOP randomizer to slice and dice and get whatever we want? Who would own those rights?

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

I think I saw the suction cups on the original Batman series, not that they actually worked

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

I'm going to have to buy a case of CDR's just to keep a copy of all my SPAM ;-). What, I can't delete it anymore?

It's evidence.

I can imagine the horrors of that for ISPs, etc. cancelbots illegal, etc.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Just the idea that someone could be required to have seven years of backups is scary.

Strangely enough there are suggestions that europe has strong elements that are pushng towards social control and social purity on many fronts.

This cuts both ways, in that the proposed controls on dangerous groups are applauded by many, until the amount of research that a eurocop would want to have at his finger tips is added up. Typically, it boils down to the idea of folks being in favor of the benefits of a police state only for certain people. People need to sort out their thinking on this just a bit.

The SOS Europe site is at:

http://www.statewatch.org/soseurope.htm

The page with the listing of the full documentation is here:

http://www.statewatch.org/news/2001/may/03Cenfopol .htm

alot of the docs are in PDF format, but the documentation you seek is on the second page.

as noted here
http://www.statewatch.org/news/dec00/01tapping.htm

The demand for a new law for all records to be held and maintained for at least seven years comes out of the discussions held in the G8 group on High-Tec Crime. Public pronouncements on how long records of all communications should be held varies from one to six months.The period of seven years requested by the NCIS matches the demands of the FBI in the G8 discussions where it is being argued that every country has to have the same, extensive, time-limit because otherwise it will be impossible to track communications. It is said that if a communication, say a telephone call, involves four different countries (A, B, C & D) intelligence-gathering will be useless if countries B & C do not hold full data for the same time period.

The G8 discussions have centred on the "problems" created for law enforcement and security and intelligence agencies by the 1995 and 1996 EU Data Protection Directives which require communications data to be destroyed once it is surplus to commercial needs - after a few days or weeks. Faced with this situation the agencies attending the G8 meetings are campaigning at national level for their governments to opt out of the Directives in order to establish de facto "international standards for data retention" (NCIS).

I am fascinated and alarmed by the FBI connection

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

There is an excellent recent article in Netslaves about recent Microsoft Tactics. One of the Major introductory points he makes is:

[ . . . ] when Jim Allchin attacks Linux, he's not going after Linus and the kernel people. He's trying to reach about a hundred CIO/CTO's who can force their company to use Win2K servers on their boxes. All of MS's anti-Linux speeches are designed to get a very small audience to hold the line on Linux growth within the corporation. Of course it pisses you off, but that isn't the point

There is a lot more to it as well in the following paragraphs.

Point Being, the attack and response should not be against each others egos, but for the hearts and minds of the people who really count, who make the high power decisions. I note that

Late Tuesday, Microsoft responded to the open letter. "We appreciate the dialog on this issue--it's exactly the type of discussion Craig was hoping to foster," the company said in a statement.

Somehow it feels like MS is trying to try to trip up the evangistas into being too brash, by seeming to be so reasonable.

And utterly un-repentant.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

There is this bit from a Fantasy and Science Fiction Column about a yarn about the A-Bomb printed during the 40's:

I had read Szilard's satirical sf novel The Voice of the Dolphins in 1961, and his sf short stories, and from him heard the story, famous in the genre, of how in the spring of 1944 Cleve Cartmill published a clear description of how an atomic bomb worked in Astounding SF, titled "Deadline." Szilard mentioned to me that Cartmill's bomb would not have worked, but the story did stress that the key problem was separating non-fissionable isotopes from the crucial Uranium 235.

This story became legend, proudly by fans touted after the war as proof of sf's predictive powers. It was a tale of an evil alliance called theAxis---oops, no, the Sixa---who are prevented from dropping the A-bomb, while their opponents, the Allies---no, oops, that's the Seilla---refrain from using the weapon, fearing its implications.

As Campbell never tired of telling, in March 1944 a captain in the Intelligence and Security Division and the Manhattan Project called for an investigation of Cartmill."

There is a lot more in the article, so go check it out. There are plenty of links if you do a common web search for the author's name, etc. The story in question has been in a number of anthologies, but I haven't found it online as far as downloading it goes.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

if you give me the money and get out of the way.- Sounds a lot like: "Give me money and free slave labour and I'll get it done"...

Of course, with the hype that we have had with the dot com debacles, it is hard to remember when there were actually endevors when bunches of folks would get together and get something worthwhile done. These days most folks think that the only way that could happen would be at the point of a gun. And that all great endevors are naturally acts of slavery and enslavement. Many are, but not all. The early days of Nasa, in going to the moon, before it becames a boondoggle, for example hand a higher goal.

It is very possible that the great pyramids were built entirely with volunteers.

But the thought is completely unbelievable to modern folks with their fashionably cynical outlook. I can remeber talking with some guy on a talk show about what the big deal was aboutjack kennedy, that he was a womanizer, etc etc etc. He was totally clueless to the notion that kennedy, whatever his faults, had somehow given a breath of life to the dreams that people had, made those hopes and dreams come very much alive, and gave strength to people based on the high mindedness of these ideals. This guy was totally clueless to this, because the biggest dream he had were his fantasies for the weekend. It was outside his reality completely.

This kind of hope and freedom was dangerous, which is why, despite all of his many faults, he had to be struck down by those opposed to it. The dream had to die.

Now in this context you can get a bunch of people willing to accomplish something, and they will not be slaves. But you have to have a legit honest real goal, not a dot-com come-on with carrot and stick. Something practical that you can put you hands own. Something worth living for and giving for and sacrificing for.

I can understand that many folks don't have anything like that. This becomes a road to a smaller, more fragile, more dangerous world.

But this fits into the cynical outlook in the original topic, where we rest assured that the government can be trusted to squash new technology by means of the appropriate government agency.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Given that Radiation stays in one place, more or less, a nuclear weapon is relatively safe. A DNA weapon has no absolute gaurentees of safety, since the vectors can ultimately infiltrate every corner of earth. This becomes the blackmail of the suicide pack.

This ultimately is more dangerous than nuclear war, because in something like thind, with the relatively low costs, what are the odds that someone is ghoing to want to purify the earth of the scourge and polution of humanity? this would look very weird in the archeological record when the next big civilization comes along in 50 - 75 million years.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

The pretty corporate pictures are here:

http://www.ugo.com/services/about/mediakit/coinfo_ exec.asp

The contact infomation is here:

http://www.ugo.com/services/about/mediakit/ contact .asp

with telephone, fax, and email.

Someone may want to save the data someplace, just in case. These guys sound a bit unpleasant, but I'm sure they are fine at a party.

[right ...]

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

here is more on that idea (of government incompetance), as seen in one of his mail discussions

(at http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives/archivesmai l/mail62.html#lemonde) :

[...] A few years ago I was asked what it would take to build a Lunar colony. My answer was: "Two billion if you give me the money and get out of the way. If you advertise a prize for the first Lunar Colony to last two years, that should probably be about ten billion dollars. Alternatively, if you go to the Air Force or Navy with specs you won't change and let them do it black (ie without having to comply with the Armed Service Procurement Regulations, which was 25 linear feet of loose-leaf notebooks when I was in the business, and is now much larger, and includes handicapped access and much else) you would probably get bids at $10 billion; if you make them do the paperwork and follow the ASPRs then probably $25 billion. NASA has already said it will take $85 billion and 20 years if everything goes as planned. With NASA nothing has EVER been cheaper or taken less time than the estimate." I have no real reason to change that now.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

See what happens when you get Government involved in things its not supposed to touch? They don't work anymore. The web wont die because of ICANN but we will have one more pain in our butts.

There has been a long standing tradition of squashing technology via official bureaucratic incompetance in govern in the USA.

You have to go know your history on this, but it goess back to things like the assembly line manufacture of rifles just after the revolution (date?), Robert Foulton's Steam Engine, and even far more recently as seen in NASA.

For Example, NASA turned from a place to get things done to a place to park the development of technology while developing boondoggles and pork barrels. It has turned into a place to squash the development of space flight. For an interesting take on this, check out Jerry Pournelle's idea that you could have a contest for Business to go into space, or go to the moon, setting up a permanent base, and have a 10 Billion dollar prize for the winner.

I proposed prizes for a Space Station and a Lunar Colony (Congress directs the Treasurer to pay to the first American owned company that keeps 31 Americans alive in orbit around the Earth for a period of one year and one day the sum of $5 Billion; no other money shall be paid to develop a space station and no money shall be paid until the goal is achieved) back in about 1982 or so. I do wish someone had paid attention. I wanted a similar $10 billion lunar colony prize: keep 31 Americans alive on the surface of the Moon for 2 years and a day....)

So don't worry, the government will take its' time, but will eventually come up with some agency to stall and stop the development of the Internet until it is nothing but a government or private office with the efficiency of the post office and the warmth and caring of the IRS.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

I Mean, Great!

Just what We Need!

How am I supposed to play all these games and make time to fight the Evil Empire of Redmond as well?

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Well, this is one way to avoid all of those nasty Outlook Email viruses, I guess.

Someone must have decided that this was a good trade off.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Car CD players are usually built to withstand shock, whereas my CD-ROM drive tends to skip when jostled. Is there a way to dampen the shocks from pot-holes, etc. when using a CD-ROM drive in a car?

This is a very valid reason to worry.

Regular walkmans, for example have a bunch of ram built in as a buffer, so that if it skips, it waits while it plays data in the buffer. Typical walkmans nowadays hav something up to 30 seconds or 45 seconds worth of buffer. I also think that they are variable speed so that they can fill up the buffer fast, and then play of the buffer as needed. This has certainly been built into the car cd players.

The second issue is the robustness of the units to take a beating due to vibrations. I think that CD Roms are more fragile than car CD Players, but this may be debatable. Certainly long term durability is an issue. How many times do you tap your computer with a rubber hammer while playing your favorite tunes? Would this even be wise?

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Look at all those posts in the beginning marked as redundant.

Those people are merely sharing how common crisis mode is.

Even if it is just due to managers believing that you can do with half the staff, or half the hardware, or half the budget you need to get the results they want.

Maybe it was a silly question to begin with, but it sure seems like whoever had the 150 moderator points had a problem with that much unexpected opinion.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

We don't have time for a crisis week

Everything is in a crisis as it is.

Seriously, think of the fun a pointy haired manager would have with this!

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Somehow the idea of networked play for the Sony PS2 over the AOL network is a little frightening.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

OK, since they have a table on the ISS, how does the stuff stay on the table? Here on the bottom of the gravity-well, 9.81m/s make sure the cup stays on the table if i put it there. But which force works up in the ISS?

They use more duct tape

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Of Course, We should all trust Micorosft. Microsoft knows the value of customer trust.

Except, of course, when they make a mistake, or mis-speak, or omit certain details, or just out right lie.

Doesn't that seem to be happening uncomfortably often?

It is one thing to get control of a market by various hardball marketing tactics.

It is another to gain a market because of trust.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

I can imagine all kinds of pitfalls to this, just based on the location. But these could just be engineering problems.

Things like thousands of miles of data cables. Never mind that you might want to hook up not just to North America, but also to Asia and Europe. Enviromental factors in terms of the cold effect on equipment. Effects from Solar Storms (northern lights, etc)

I am not completely sold on this. Maybe something closer to the Bering Straights.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

and one more update on the story as seen from that same site, regarding the various reactions to the original images, etc.

http://www.enterprisemission.com/empire.htm

There does seem to be some weird politics behind the scene, above and beyond the actual science.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Apparently, Arthur C Clarke has had some input on this as well.

This has been taken to heart by a well known site, famous in fringe circles as one of the more serious sites in the fringe science area:

Clarke Item One: http://www.enterprisemission.com/images/arthur.jpg

Clarke Item Two: http://www.enterprisemission.com/sir.htm

An Explanation?: http://www.enterprisemission.com/can.htm

Take with the usual pinch of salt.

Although I can see the possibility for weird politics inside nasa.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Personally, I have nothing against the idea of little green men from mars, although I think it far more likely that the little green people are actually be little green AI robots. Since the US Military is working in the direction of unmanned aircraft, and with the continued advances in AI, etc this becomes much more reasonable. And It would explain the reported manuvering capabilities of this things.

That being said, I think that alot of what folks see looking at mars is sort of what you get looking at the old ink blot tests. you can see all kinds of things there, when all it really is, is ink on papaer. Probably most of it is that way.

On the other hand, if there were little green robots out there running around, a place like mars might not be a bad place for a base, although the asteroids would be better suited for most operations. So it spotting structures from space would not be unusual.

Of note in this discussion are this story from last week on ABC News, about a group of 20 ex military and others coming forward and saying that their were just to many weird things going on. You can see the real Video of the original press conferance here: http://www.connectlive.com/events/disclosureprojec t/ in two parts, (p1 = 1h45m, p2 = 0h55m)

If this comes up as legit, then I would be surprised to NOT find something on Mars. but alot of it is likely nothing at all.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Why is it the school's job to teach values to our children? It's the parent's job to make sure that his or her child knows right from wrong. Our society increasingly abdicates this responsibility to our future, forcing public institutions like the school system to attempt to repair the damage to our ethical mores that lazy and stupid parents refuse to engender in an entire generation.

Actually - it is not just the responsibility of just the parents, or of just the teachers. Everyone has to exercise responsibility, and take care of the things they see around them. This can be a rough concept to deal with. So let me give an example from a geek life

I recall a repair shop in a store that also had a shell answer man type sales desk on the floor, dealing with hardware questions, etc. and coordinating with the repair install shop so that the right parts were ordered etc. Now for managerial purposes you had to have someone named as the person in chargew so that you could shoot someone in case of theft, etc. But there were a group of people who were equally adept at working both sides of the operation. And it worked out that If there was help needed on one side or the other, someone could go over and lend a hand. It went back and forth.

The technical term for this is the dynamic re-allocation of resources.

This can only work in a situation where you have a majority of the people involved who are in fact competent, and who are trustworthy, and who are willing to take real responsibility for the situation. (heck I'm an alien, so I can dream ... ;-)

The correct assignment of responsibility requires this sort of thing on a wider basis. However, responsibility is currently defined by most folks as "what can I get blamed for", and "what can I pass off on to the other guy" meaning I don't have to sweat it myself. That simply won't cut it if you expect society to change for the better.

In this canoe, everyone has got to paddle. Sorry, but you got to grab an oar.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

There is some basic contact info here
(thoughtfully worded snailmail probably best)

Grover Middle School
10 Southfield Road
Princeton, NJ 08550
Principal: Steven Mayer

But if you are in a rush, School Board email addresses and other info can be found here.

http://www.wwptoday.com/schools/schools.html

The district main website is at:

http://www.ww-p.org/

they have a blurb about handling trauma, but noting about the suicide itself

Please be careful to tread the original story, and cite the link as a source when you send email.

Mind you also that some of the teachers may well be innocent bystanders, and already upset enough as it is.

Be thoughtful and concerned in your reply, even if it is intensely emotional.

The problem is a system, that, under thew appearance of help, tends to do those things that destroy, even if benign neglect. "We didn't see it coming" they say, but they are supposed to be the professionals. They are supposed to know.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

But district Superintendent John Fitzsimons said school officials followed disciplinary policies in this case, and although teachers and administrators are grieving the loss, they aren't responsible. "When one seeks answers when none exist, it's understandable to extend blame," Fitzsimons said. "But in my judgment, due process was exercised and the actions of the administration were justified."

All this says is that they are clueless, and they explain it away as saying there is no answer.

And their standard answer is punishment by suspension. Punishment by itself is NOT educational. It is the theory that Pain is theraputic to Learning. Which is how some people train dogs. By Fear, Pain, and Punishment

Now the kid needed to be taught some responsibility. Obviously the school district is not qualified to teach this to those kids.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Well the old jousting tournements were popular for a reason, even if the music they had wasn't rock'n'roll.

and Medieval peasants could certainly be a rowdy bunch. So it in perverse way, this may actually catch some of the energy and excitement of the tournaments even if it is otherwise sheer fantasy.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Maybe I just need coffee, but I just had this flash of speculation of some aspects UCITA copyright law and licensing being applied to entertainment. Of course this is Europe, where they don't do things quite the same way as in the US. and UCITA is not the same as the DCMA

During the Opening credits:

"This film is licensed for you one time only in the exchange for the fee of a movie ticket, or a movie rental, all for the purposes of your viewing pleasure. Ownership for puroses of indefinite viewing is prohibited under Law."

[Insert incredible legalese for 1 to 5 minutes of scrolling]

"In exchange for the priveledge of viewing this entertainment, you also agree to not write or speak about about elements of this entertainment in a public or private forum without prior approval of the proprietors of the establishment providing you with this licensed viewing, and the owners of this Licensed property. This prohibition includes discussion and opinion expressed on TV shows, Radio shows, message forums, and other media online and offline."

[Insert more legal blather]

" If you dis-agree with these conditions, Please Leave the theater now and Ask for a refund. If You are viewing via a rental, cancel the streaming media immediately and ask your service provider for as refund. Violation of this license can lead to substantial fines and imprisonment"

Seems like something that someone might want someday.

Terry Gillium ought to do a satirical film with just this sort of premise.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

I always had a sentimental attitude towards them. It wouldn't bother me (but it IS unlikely) if MS abandons the desktop to devote everything to .NET, and then after it all shakes out, Amiga is there again with a decent system again.

I wish the guys the best of luck. But, this sounds like a tale of the underside of the programmers' life:

Olaf Barthel: Probably the same as with 3.5, which is complaining about the things that don't work and then surprisingly ending up doing all the work to resolve the issues I don't see anybody else finding the time to tackle. That's how I ended up rewriting workbench.library and reimplementing icon.library from scratch, plus taking to fixing a gazillion of other bits and pieces. Believe me, I'd rather have spent my time more productively.

Amen, but as they say, the devil is in the details

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Looks like someone is just figuring out the practical applications and implications of ethics as far as their personal life goes.

However, they are careful to dance around inconsistancies, as well as nicely avoiding actually taking responsibility for anything wrong that they might be doing themselves.

The result is a pleasant mishmash of fractured logic.

The problem not spotted is that there are several layers and levels of non-ethical behavior here on the part of all concerned.

You have

• the business and marketing practices of MS. In a perfect world, MS would get fair exchange for their work and their products, and they would not see possible independance from the MS as a deathly threat to them. The flaw in the MS model is that anyone who is getting ahead who is not under their control is viewed as a threat, or a competitor. MS talks about the danger of competition. The problem here is that a number of MS flacks take this to the level approaching paranoia.
• As above for MS, but instead insert the recording and film industries.
• The individual patron of the arts and of computer products, has the ethical problem of how to deal fairly and rightly with business that have adopted some of the mafia mentality, and who have bought the law makers so that ripoffs are considered fair business practice under the law (the copyright act, etc)

It is no consolation that under innumerable religious systems such people, no matter how much they explain away their deeds and misdeeds, condemn themselves to any number of the commonly described hells, many of their own making.

It is also very inviting to go ahead and go along with the petty ripoffs, because the system has been set up this way. And many common actions have been suddenly made illegal under this abusive system. this is a trap by itself.

The real ethical quandry lies in not recognizing the ethical trap that has been sprung. and then, to step into it, and then to explain away everything you are doing because of all thos bad men over there.

The real ethical solution is to recognize the trap, not step into it, and to then work with others to make a better system that is truly fair and not booby trapped for the benefit of the greedy.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip