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Another funny picture by Sumocide · 2000-05-18 06:03 · Score: 2 · on Metallica Remains Silent

Here's another related funny picture.

Was Metallica Corporation paid by the RIAA??? by perfecto · 2000-05-18 02:42 · Score: 1 · on Metallica Remains Silent

think about it. we all know that metallica corporation does not make the majority of its money through album sales. especially not the last two or three pitiful ones (s&m was OKAY but they could have done away with all the load and reload crap on it). it just makes no sense for them to fight so hard to keep mp3s off the internet. they really have no vested stake in doing so. in fact, it would be great for them for their music to spread around the world just as it was great for them when their underground tape spread around the world. none of this makes sense... until you put two and two together. it's the riaa who has the most to gain from all this and the most to lose if musicians actually break free from their clutches and start to promote themselves in more creative (and likely more effective) ways. god forbid that these groups start developing DIRECT relationships with their fans and start learning things like incremental sales. god forbid licensing revenues for commericial and movies go directly to the creators. luckily (for the riaa), they saw that metallica was quite content sucking the dick of corporate america and very ignorant of all of these possibilities. so the riaa offers them cash to file suit against napster (god forbid metallica make money by creating QUALITY heavy metal again). now the riaa has a high profile act saying that napster is uncool and gives its campaign legitimacy. nice idea but it's a losing battle. fans are going to trade napster or no napster and all metallica is doing is making some short term cash while cutting its longevity short. i can't say that i'll miss them. ever since load, i've been hoping something would put them out of their misery. they sound so sad. at least there's a chance for that! -- ...And Justice for none: Why Metallica Corporation is DEAD WRONG about Napster

--
J Perry Fecteau, 5-time Mr. Internet
Ejercisio Perfecto: from Geek to GOD in WEEKS!

Re:Implied contracts. by Mr.+Slippery · 2000-05-17 23:22 · Score: 2 · on Today's Helping Of The DMCA

Now, you may like the idea of government just replacing corporations as active players in the lives of people, but I'd rather hold off both.

Yes, I also would prefer to keep both "Big Business " and "Big Brother" at bay.

No more of this Deleware corporation crap, which steps on the rights of the real home state.
Interesting idea, but difficult in practice. "Headquartered" is a very vague notion, to define legally.

How so? Simply define the headquarters as where the most employees are engaged in business activities. (Or maybe the state where the majority of stock holders live. If that changes, make 'em re-charter in the new state. That might also help make stockholders behave like real owners of a company instead of like people trading baseball cards.)

If that makes for a rush on Delaware real estate as megacorps build large campuses there, Delaware might just change some of its laws when it finds that all these corporations it chartered are now showing up and affecting the people who live there, rather than leeching off their real home states.

Congress has the power to *regulate* interstate trade; to say that Congress could *forbid* it would be a questionable extension of power.

I would think that regulating an activity includes determining conditions for taking part in it at all.

Certainly banning a misbehaving corporation from selling across state lines is a hell of a lot less questionable application of the interstate commerce clause than, say, recent attempts to make violence against women a federal crime on the basis that it affects the economy.

(Lest I be misunderstood: violence against any innocent person is a bad thing. People who perpitrate domestic violence need to be removed from polite society. However, if a state fails to do so, the proper remedy is to use the federal courts to make the state respect the civil rights of women, not to expand the powers of the federal government on a half-assed pretext.)

Let me guess; you're a big fan of Franklin Roosevelt's legacy?

Not really. His policies helped save capitalism, at the price of more regulation, but I don't desire a regulated capitalism so much as a libertarian socialism.

(Briefly: it is a fallacy to think that the political left necessarily wants bigger government and the right wants smaller government. The attributes of government include not just its size and power, but also the direction in which it applies that power - think of it as a vector quantity. Like the libertarian capitalists, I wish to keep the magnitude of that vector small. However, I want it pointed in a different direction; one supporting personal freedom and a free economy, but based on labor (leftist) rather than property (rightist). Which doesn't mean the abolition of private property, just recognizing that it is a human creation meant as a means to an end - human freedom and contentment - not an end in itself; and that concentrating control of resources into the hands of a few is destructive of that end.)

MAKE MONEY FA$$T! by Pseudonymus+Bosch · 2000-05-17 17:12 · Score: 1 · on H.R. 3113: Spam Bounty Hunters Wanted

From:
Reply-To: <tr0ll@hotgr1t$.org>

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__

OT: Canadian Politics by m0nkyman · 2000-05-17 08:54 · Score: 1 · on Canadian Gov't Keeps Detailed Citizen Database

(PS for all the Canadians reading this, if you don't think the likes of Tom "Sieg Hiel!" Long or Preston Manning wouldn't like to get their hands on this info, your sadly mistaken. The 'Alliance' Facists would be way worse than simply incompetent Liberals)

I agree that either Tom Long or Presto would be an abomination, but looking at Keith Martin I gotta say I'm impressed. He's socially liberal, fiscally sensible and totally ignored by the media cause he's not from Ontario. His being in the party almost makes me not want to run away screaming when I hear the idea of them forming the next government.

And if you think Chretien is incompetent and not evil, I refer you tothe actions he took to stomp out dissent at the APEC conference in Vancouver. If ever there was a fascist running the country (outside of the 1930's but that's a different rant) he is it.

Re:Latency? by Detritus · 2000-05-15 14:15 · Score: 1 · on Qwest Achieves 100-Mile IP Round-Trip At 40Gb/sec

Click here for a picture of a woody station wagon, or watch an old surfing movie.

Re:How old? by Stavros · 2000-05-14 23:12 · Score: 1 · on Self-Timed ARM Provides Low Power Consumption

> Still, long live Arthur!

Ah! This brings back memories.... none too pleasant ones. The days when GUIs were written in BASIC will not be missed.
Of course if you're hankering for that Archimedes feeling there's a pretty decent emulator up at this guy's page.
Most games and demos run, but sadly there's no sound yet.

Re:API Chinese Wall, or why breakup is essential by Capt.+Beyond · 2000-05-06 19:58 · Score: 2 · on Windows Source Code Proposal Confirmed

Would you happen to know where I can find more information about this?

here
and here

SID my lord by Knos · 2000-05-04 15:51 · Score: 1 · on Minibosses Rock Nostalgic

I keep listening to those amazing sid tunes all the time.... and it's not nostalgia, I've never had any c64. The sound/melodies just kick ass.

Links for further reading ... by fhwang · 2000-05-03 22:07 · Score: 5 · on The Corporate Republic

As usual, Mr. Katz isn't the first person to be saying this. A few good places to look for more info would be:

Noam Chomsky Political Texts Online: Noam Chomsky's a professor of linguistics at MIT, and has been writing about the effects of capitalism on democracy for over 20 years.

The Left Business Observer: A hard look at the messages of capitalism's cheerleaders, from an analytical economist's point of view. Plenty of charts and graphs.

Stay Free! Magazine: A zine focusing on commercialism and consumer culture. Slashdot readers will probably enjoy the mean iMac ad parody on the front page.

Francis Hwang

Re:The image by Leapfrog · 2000-05-03 21:52 · Score: 1 · on Handmade Encryption Challenge

Purpure,
Purple field
chief sable,
A black bar at the top of the crest.
bend azure
A diagonal bar (bend) from top left to bottom right in blue.
molet or
A star of cadencey (indicating that the third son of the family carries the shield) in gold. (a molet is usually a five-pointed star, though)
at middle chief
At the top of the shield, in the center.
square or at sinister chief
A square, in gold, at the top left of the shield (as seen by the person carrying the shield.)
arrowheads argent dexter and sinister
Arrowhead insignia in silver on both left and right sides.

See? Not that hard. (Not that correct, either). Some info can be found at this link, provided it isn't mangled by the slashdot daemons.

Re:Java = Language + RTL + VM / compiler by harmonica · 2000-05-03 07:17 · Score: 2 · on IBM JDK 1.3 For Linux

The problem can be overcome, and has been overcome uncountable times, using ISO C.

Of course these problems are avoidable, but practice shows that all errors that a language allows you to be done will be done by someone, even if every good book on software engineering tells you not to.

The example may have been a poor one, but it's something everybody probably has seen in some ugly code snippet.

On the portability issue, I'm not sure how difficult it is to create a new VM / compiler. I guess it depends on how much the new platform differs from the other ones. Is it easier to create a Unix XY port if you already have a VM for Unix YZ? I would say so, but I don't know exactly, maybe one of the Blackdown people can answer this (some of them are reading slashdot comments on Java IIRC).

Sun has defined three different Java editions, including a micro edition, to address the problem of embedded systems and handheld devices. The micro edition only includes a subset of the functionality of the standard or enterprise edition. A description can be found on Sun's website.

On the number of platforms for which there are compilers and virtual machines, there are many. Kaffe alone has more than 30 OS / processor combinations supported.

Also take a look at this list of compilers and virtual machines, there are VM's and compilers for all kinds of systems. But for the older and more exotic systems the porting of a VM / compiler may not be worth the effort. Maybe the Java part of the GNU compiler collection can do something for them -- I don't know much about the status of Java support there.

Infrastructure is not Innovation by Baldrson · 2000-05-02 23:26 · Score: 2 · on 20th Century's Greatest Engineering Achievements

The thing I found most objectionable about this list is that it is the sort of list Al "I invented the Internet" Gore would love. It is virtually all infrastructure.

Infrastructure is what the bureaucrats get to create by turning the crank on the wheels of the machine once the inventors have created the machine. Until then, bureaucrats are an impediment to infrastructure creation. The worst crimes against humanity are the creation of technobureaucracies that virtually must, by their very political nature, give authority over innovation to the wrong people.

For example, the transistor got invented in spite of, not because of, Bell Labs' management.

more old-school hardware by Siva · 2000-05-02 10:44 · Score: 3 · on Quickies Rock!

this site was posted on slashdot like about a year ago. it has pictures and basic specs on many old-school machines. they also have separate sections devoted to video game hardware and scans of old computer ads.

http://www.geocities.com/~compcloset/

--Siva

Keyboard not found.

Isn't *everyone* in Australia a felon... by imagineer_bob · 2000-05-02 00:57 · Score: 1 · on Your (Australian) Criminal Record Online

...or the descendant of one?

Perhaps they should list people who aren't criminals!

It's interesting that they gather their data from newspaper reports, etc. All you need is a web server and some minimum-wage workers to scan the newspapers to enter this business. It's a do-it-yourself Megan's Slaw.

BTW, even though this is not a government sanctioned list, and it's happening in a foreign country, it means we should be careful about supporting things like Megan's Law, even if we don't like pedophiles or child molestors

--- Speaking only for myself,

Not Quite a Common Carrier... by Baldrson · 2000-05-01 07:02 · Score: 2 · on Supreme Court Rules ISPs Not Liable for E-mail Content

When ISP's can insist on certain rules of 'netiquette' in their customer contracts, they are not acting as common carriers.

There is a big difference between suggestions and binding rules.

Rules of etiquette typically exclude criminal conduct, but that does not mean Miss Manners should be given the force of law. Nevertheless, there are cases where ISP authority has been invoked by energetically blurring the distinction between stating very unpopular opinions that ignite flame wars, violating rules of 'netiquette' and breaking the laws regulating the use of communication channels. This typically occurs when widely received neomorals against sins involving human genetics("racism", "sexism", "homophobia" etc.), are violated. That all countries in the industrialized western world now have vigorously enforced statutes on the books prohibiting "hate speech", the definition of which shifts and expands depending on how many and which "victim groups" have joined the coalition against free speech, does not bode well for the rule of law in the resolution of disputes within societies that are both increasingly diverse in their makeup and woefully inexperienced with such rapidly increasing diversity.

How is it, then, that an ISP can avoid legal liability for communications that take place over its wires when it preemptively demands, not only the avoidance of illegal conduct -- such as libel, spam and cracking -- but the adherence to "rules of netiquette" in the name of which unpopular opinions are routinely intimidated and occasionally penalized?

ISP's have, by this careless definition of their bounds of authority, abrogated their role as common carriers and become the de facto enforcers of majority opinion in public speech. All that remains is ever increasing exceptions to the principle of free speech and a free press, as the definition of what constitutes "hate speech" is widened and the force of law to legitimize this censorship in the name of "keeping the peace" is expanded to the last jurisdiction in the developed world still free from such legalistic tyranny: The United States.

I'll post, again, an exerpt of a white paper I wrote in 1982 warning of what is, apparently, coming to pass.

The question at hand is this: How do we mold the early videotex environment so that noise is suppressed without limiting the free flow of information between customers?

The first obstacle is, of course, legal. As the knights of U.S. feudalism, corporate lawyers have a penchant for finding ways of stomping out innovation and diversity in any way possible. In the case of videotex, the attempt is to keep feudal control of information by making videotex system ownership imply liability for information transmitted over it. For example, if a libelous communication takes place, corporate lawyers for the plaintiff will bring suit against the carrier rather than the individual responsible for the communication. The rationalizations for this clearly unreasonable and contrived position are quite numerous. Without a common carrier status, the carrier will be treading on virgin ground legally and thus be unprotected by precedent. Indeed, the stakes are high enough that the competitor could easily afford to fabricate an event ideal for the purposes of such a suit. This means the first legal precedent could be in favor of holding the carrier responsible for the communications transmitted over its network, thus forcing (or giving an excuse for) the carrier to inspect, edit and censor all communications except, perhaps, simple person-to-person or "electronic mail". This, in turn, would put editorial control right back in the hands of the feudalists. Potential carriers' own lawyers are already hard at work worrying everyone about such a suit. They would like to win the battle against diversity before it begins. This is unlikely because videotex is still driven by technology and therefore by pioneers.

The question then becomes: How do we best protect against such "legal" tactics? The answer seems to be an early emphasis on secure identification of the source of communications so that there can be no question as to the individual responsible. This would preempt an attempt to hold the carrier liable. Anonymous communications, like Delphi conferencing, could even be supported as long as some individual would be willing to attach his/her name to the communication before distributing it. This would be similar, legally, to a "letters to the editor" column where a writer remains anonymous. Another measure could be to require that only individuals of legal age be allowed to author publishable communications. Yet another measure could be to require anyone who wishes to write and publish information on the network to put in writing, in an agreement separate from the standard customer agreement, that they are liable for any and all communications originating under their name on the network. This would preempt the "stolen password" excuse for holding the carrier liable.

Beyond the secure identification of communication sources, there is the necessity of editorial services. Not everyone is going to want to filter through everything published by everyone on the network. An infrastructure of editorial staffs is that filter. In exchange for their service the editorial staff gets to promote their view of the world and, if they are in enough demand, charge money for access to their list of approved articles. On a videotex network, there is little capital involved in establishing an editorial staff. All that is required is a terminal and a file on the network which may have an intrinsic cost as low as $5/month if it represents a publication with "only" around 100 articles. The rest is up to the customers. If they like a publication, they will read it. If they don't they won't. A customer could ask to see all articles approved by staffs A or B inclusive, or only those articles approved by both A and B, etc. This sort of customer selection could involve as many editorial staffs as desired in any logical combination. An editorial staff could review other editorial staffs as well as individual articles, forming hierarchies to handle the mass of articles that would be submitted every day. This sort of editorial mechanism would not only provide a very efficient way of filtering out poor and questionable communications without inhibiting diversity, it would add a layer of liability for publications that would further insulate carriers from liability and therefore from a monopoly over communications.

In general, anything that acts to filter out bad information and that is not under control of the carrier, acts to prevent the carrier from monopolizing the evolution of ideas on the network.

What's new with the websurfer? by diverse · 2000-05-01 05:52 · Score: 1 · on 50-Dollar Hackable "WebSurfer"

Most info is available on the BB: (new urls)
http://www.kenseglerdesigns.com/cgi-bin/UltraBoard /UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowBoard&Board=ws tech
http://www.kenseglerdesigns.com/cgi-bin/UltraBoard /UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowBoard&Board=ws general

Some files are mirrored and more info is coming here:
http://www.geocities.com/d1v3rs1ty/

Interlingua: Ultimate human open source language by McDutchie · 2000-04-30 10:08 · Score: 1 · on A Common (Internet-Based) Language?

I would like to expand on what you said about Interlingua since I believe this is underrepresented here.

Io volerea expander sur lo que tu diceva super Interlingua proque io trova que isto es hic subrepresentate.

Interlingua is a neutral, constructed, but naturalistic language that most anyone could understand, at least passively, without having to learn it first. A grassroots, clean alternative to the sluggish and bloated monopolist English, not controlled by any government, company or other entity, upon which anyone can freely extend and build, as long as you keep to a certain set of openly published, scientifically established guidelines -- a kind of Linux of the human languages?

Interlingua es un lingua neutral, construite, ma naturalistic que quasi tote le mundo poterea comprender, al minus passivemente, sine deber apprender lo primarimente. Un fresc alternativo grassroots a le monopolista anglese phlegmatic e inflate, non controllate per alcun governamento, compania o altere entitate, sur le qual alcuno pote liberemente extender e construar, a condition que on respecte un certe collection de regulas scientificamente establite -- un sorta de Linux del linguas human?

Interlingua has been in use for decades (for real, not as a hobby). And it's not just because of it's name that it is the ideal auxiliary language for the Internet age; its major advantage is its instant usability even outside the Interlingua community.

Interlingua ha essite usate pro decennios (realmente, non como un hobby). E il es non solmente le nomine que rende lo le lingua auxiliari ideal pro le era del Internet; su avantage major es su usabilitate instante anque exterior del communitate de interlingua.

For 27 years (from 1924 to 1951), a team of linguists worked on the cool concept that an interlational language already exists, hidden in all the world's national languages: the language of scientific and technical international words, mostly of Latin and Greek origin. They extracted this language methodologically out of seven major source languages sharing most of this international vocabulary. Then they made a minimalist grammatical framework around it (no gender, no verb inflections, almost no irregularities, etc), et voila: a constructed, but natural language, easy to learn, that's immediately usable almost all over the world (even on computers: its character set is plain ASCII).

Durante 27 annos (ab 1924 de 1951), un equipa de linguistas laborava sur le concepto superbe que un lingua international jam existe, latente i omne le linguas national del mundo: le lingua del parolas scientific e technic international, principalmente de origine latin e grec. Illes extraheva methodologicamente iste lingua ex septe major linguas fonte possedente in commun le major parte de iste vocabulario international. Tunc illes faceva un structura grammatical minimilista circa lo (nulle genere, nulle inflectiones de verbos, quasi nulle irregularitates, etc). Le resultato: ecce un lingua construite ma natural, facile a apprender, que es immediatemente usabile quasi in toto le mundo (mesmo sur computatores: su serie de characteres es simple ASCII).

The team, called IALA (International Auxiliary Language Association) decided that the source languages for Interlingua would be English, French, Spanish/Portuguese (taken as one), Italian, German, and Russian. Roughly said, if a given word appears in some form in at least three of these languages, it is automatically an Interlingua word, whether it appears in any dictionary or not - all that needs to be determined is its 'prototype', an average version of the word without the peculiarities of the national languages. This linguistic methodology makes any governing body obsolete.

Le equippa, appellate IALA (Association de Linguas Auxiliari International) decideva que le linguas fonte pro interlingua esserea anglese, francese, espaniol/portugese (prendite como un), italian, german, e russian. Approximatemente, si un parola date appare in alcun forma in al minus tres de iste linguas, illo es automaticamente un parola interlingua, esque illo appare i alcun dictionario o non - toto que debe esser determinate es su 'prototypo', un version medie del parola sin le peculiaritates del linguas national. Iste metodologia linguistic rende obsolete alcun corpore governante.

Interlingua is the ultimate human open source language. If you discover a new word that appears in at least three of the source languages, then all you have to do is determine the prototype and you have a new Interlingua word. This way, many English words, especially Internet-related terms, have made its way into Interlingua since it was published in 1951. In addition, there is also its innate ability to build new words out of existing ones.

Interlingua es le ultimate human lingua de fonte libere. Si vos discoperi un nove parola que appare in al minus tres del linguas fonte, allora toto vos debe facer es determinar le prototypo e vos ha un nove parola interlingua. Via iste methodo, multe parolas anglese, specialmente termines de Internet, ha arrivate in interlingua post que illo era publicate in 1951. In addition, illo ha anque un capacitate innate de construir nove parolas de parolas existente.

Interlingua: Ultimate human open source language by McDutchie · 2000-04-30 10:08 · Score: 1 · on A Common (Internet-Based) Language?

I would like to expand on what you said about Interlingua since I believe this is underrepresented here.

Io volerea expander sur lo que tu diceva super Interlingua proque io trova que isto es hic subrepresentate.

Interlingua is a neutral, constructed, but naturalistic language that most anyone could understand, at least passively, without having to learn it first. A grassroots, clean alternative to the sluggish and bloated monopolist English, not controlled by any government, company or other entity, upon which anyone can freely extend and build, as long as you keep to a certain set of openly published, scientifically established guidelines -- a kind of Linux of the human languages?

Interlingua es un lingua neutral, construite, ma naturalistic que quasi tote le mundo poterea comprender, al minus passivemente, sine deber apprender lo primarimente. Un fresc alternativo grassroots a le monopolista anglese phlegmatic e inflate, non controllate per alcun governamento, compania o altere entitate, sur le qual alcuno pote liberemente extender e construar, a condition que on respecte un certe collection de regulas scientificamente establite -- un sorta de Linux del linguas human?

Interlingua has been in use for decades (for real, not as a hobby). And it's not just because of it's name that it is the ideal auxiliary language for the Internet age; its major advantage is its instant usability even outside the Interlingua community.

Interlingua ha essite usate pro decennios (realmente, non como un hobby). E il es non solmente le nomine que rende lo le lingua auxiliari ideal pro le era del Internet; su avantage major es su usabilitate instante anque exterior del communitate de interlingua.

For 27 years (from 1924 to 1951), a team of linguists worked on the cool concept that an interlational language already exists, hidden in all the world's national languages: the language of scientific and technical international words, mostly of Latin and Greek origin. They extracted this language methodologically out of seven major source languages sharing most of this international vocabulary. Then they made a minimalist grammatical framework around it (no gender, no verb inflections, almost no irregularities, etc), et voila: a constructed, but natural language, easy to learn, that's immediately usable almost all over the world (even on computers: its character set is plain ASCII).

Durante 27 annos (ab 1924 de 1951), un equipa de linguistas laborava sur le concepto superbe que un lingua international jam existe, latente i omne le linguas national del mundo: le lingua del parolas scientific e technic international, principalmente de origine latin e grec. Illes extraheva methodologicamente iste lingua ex septe major linguas fonte possedente in commun le major parte de iste vocabulario international. Tunc illes faceva un structura grammatical minimilista circa lo (nulle genere, nulle inflectiones de verbos, quasi nulle irregularitates, etc). Le resultato: ecce un lingua construite ma natural, facile a apprender, que es immediatemente usabile quasi in toto le mundo (mesmo sur computatores: su serie de characteres es simple ASCII).

The team, called IALA (International Auxiliary Language Association) decided that the source languages for Interlingua would be English, French, Spanish/Portuguese (taken as one), Italian, German, and Russian. Roughly said, if a given word appears in some form in at least three of these languages, it is automatically an Interlingua word, whether it appears in any dictionary or not - all that needs to be determined is its 'prototype', an average version of the word without the peculiarities of the national languages. This linguistic methodology makes any governing body obsolete.

Le equippa, appellate IALA (Association de Linguas Auxiliari International) decideva que le linguas fonte pro interlingua esserea anglese, francese, espaniol/portugese (prendite como un), italian, german, e russian. Approximatemente, si un parola date appare in alcun forma in al minus tres de iste linguas, illo es automaticamente un parola interlingua, esque illo appare i alcun dictionario o non - toto que debe esser determinate es su 'prototypo', un version medie del parola sin le peculiaritates del linguas national. Iste metodologia linguistic rende obsolete alcun corpore governante.

Interlingua is the ultimate human open source language. If you discover a new word that appears in at least three of the source languages, then all you have to do is determine the prototype and you have a new Interlingua word. This way, many English words, especially Internet-related terms, have made its way into Interlingua since it was published in 1951. In addition, there is also its innate ability to build new words out of existing ones.

Interlingua es le ultimate human lingua de fonte libere. Si vos discoperi un nove parola que appare in al minus tres del linguas fonte, allora toto vos debe facer es determinar le prototypo e vos ha un nove parola interlingua. Via iste methodo, multe parolas anglese, specialmente termines de Internet, ha arrivate in interlingua post que illo era publicate in 1951. In addition, illo ha anque un capacitate innate de construir nove parolas de parolas existente.

Uniform Law == Bad Law by Baldrson · 2000-04-28 06:05 · Score: 2 · on Fighting UCITA

As someone who has helped draft and pass federal statutes, as well as someone who has developed large scale software systems I am opposed to the very idea of bulky "uniform law" for the same reason that I am opposed to a bulky uniform operating system:

It means death for fractal diversity and therefore calling a halt to evolution.

Also, being born in Iowa, I just wanted to point out that Iowa has been accused of being one of the least "diverse" states in the US. If counted as a separate country it has one of the highest standards of academic excellence in the world(although that holds for most of the northern midwest breadbasket states). Iowa's "lack of diversity" is exactly the sort of thing that is required for fractal diversity to exist.

States Rights keeps "the laboratory of the states" evolving fresh insights into human nature and human potential.

It is possible to increase the popular conception of "diversity" by infecting yourself with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, so be careful which kind of "diversity" you promote.

Re:eBay and removing things by freq · 2000-04-27 20:47 · Score: 1 · on eBay E-Meter Auctions Yanked

There were several sites with parodies of the whole elian thing (including the infamous wazzzzup!!! thing which imho was hilarious.) you can find mirrors here

apparantly the associated press has made a concerted effort to "defend their intellectual property rights" by threatening legal action against anyone and everyone they could find who reproduced or altered these images for profit or for fun.

Other fringe designs by coreman · 2000-04-26 20:37 · Score: 3 · on Mysterious Cold War Spacecraft Designs!

I had thought that the nuclear propulsion method Niven/Pournelle proposed in Footfall had actually been a cold war design at one point.

Just the links to the last episode by Harlequin · 2000-04-25 00:33 · Score: 1 · on 'Dungeons and Dragons' Returns!

last episode's transcript
show related website.
"choose your own adventures"
(still sorry about the tripple post with broken links)

Just the links to the last episode by Harlequin · 2000-04-25 00:33 · Score: 1 · on 'Dungeons and Dragons' Returns!

last episode's transcript
show related website.
"choose your own adventures"
(still sorry about the tripple post with broken links)

Been there, done that by ZoneGray · 2000-04-22 20:54 · Score: 1 · on Speed Racer's Mach 5 Becomes Reality

http://www.geocities.com/zonegray/mach 5.html

Let's see how sharp-eyed y'all are./p

Worst movie ever! by perfecto · 2000-04-17 00:21 · Score: 1 · on Star Wars EP1 On DVD Confirmed By Lucas

I can't believe I waited 15 years for that total piece of drek. I don't know what's worse... that or Blair Witch!

--
J Perry Fecteau, 5-time Mr. Internet
Ejercisio Perfecto: from Geek to GOD in WEEKS!

Worst movie ever! by perfecto · 2000-04-17 00:21 · Score: 1 · on Star Wars EP1 On DVD Confirmed By Lucas

I can't believe I waited 15 years for that total piece of drek. I don't know what's worse... that or Blair Witch!

--
J Perry Fecteau, 5-time Mr. Internet
Ejercisio Perfecto: from Geek to GOD in WEEKS!

Change the name and they can't. by yerricde · 2000-04-16 19:53 · Score: 1 · on The World's Largest Game Of Tetris

I wonder why The Tetris Company hasn't sued this guy yet since they threaten legal action against everyone who has even a vaguely similar tetris java applet on their web page.

You mean like this article which was posted to /. a while back? Bedter is back online, after it was determined that all Elorg and The Tetris Company LLC own about Tetris® is the ®. All they have to do is take "TETR", "ETRI", and "TRIS" out of the name. Thus, freepuzzlearena for Linux, DOS, and Windows.

Useful URL by Anonymous Coward · 2000-04-13 14:45 · Score: 2 · on Battlefield Earth

This is a page documenting the media coverage of BE.
http://www.geocities.com/xenu2000/

its all the rage by xavii · 2000-04-13 13:40 · Score: 1 · on Battlefield Earth

First off, here is a link to the "true story behind the movie". It's the anti-scientologists thoughts on how the movie is a big advertisement and recruitment flick for scientology.(WHATEVER)

Personally, i don't care what beliefs are behind a movie. Religions, in my eyes, are just based on a bunch of metaphoric truths. In the Matrix, the whole trinity, rebirth hooplah was prominent, but it didn't make me want to goto church and praise god. I'm going to go see Battlefield Earth as a big budget scifi flick and hope to GOD that it's better than pitch black.

xavii aka bob

GIMP/2 is available by SpiceWare · 2000-04-13 00:05 · Score: 2 · on IBM To Release OS/2 Warp 4 With 'Convenience Packs'

GIMP/2 currently requires you to install Xfree86/OS2, though I understand a WPS version is in the works.

Running Xfree86/OS2 has an additional benefit if you have Linux systems on your network. It provides you with the ability to run software on your Linux box with the display occuring on your OS/2 box! I've set up a web page documenting how to do it(there's minor differences in setting up the OS/2 and the Linux systems). I've succesfully run Civilization CTP on my OS/2 system using this.

Wormholes take a wee bit too much resources by MarkoMuscovich · 2000-04-12 23:31 · Score: 1 · on Wormholes? Maybe.

IANAP. However, from the reading I've done, it would seem that to produce even a very small wormhole would take an enormous amount of negative mass in a very small space... You can look here for a sort of random discussion of traversable wormholes.

Another Geek trait by Stavr0 · 2000-04-12 19:00 · Score: 1 · on Star Blazers Available Online

Nothing like an Anime story to mak'em come out of the woodowork. ;-)
While the normals were having a regular childhood, us pasty-faced geeks were glued to TV watching anime!

My short list:
Captain Harlock (aka Albator)
Grandizer (aka Goldorak)
Captain Future (aka Capitaine FLAM)
Robotech the MACROSS Saga
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Re:Ayn Rand novels by dennisp · 2000-04-12 06:29 · Score: 3 · on How Socially Responsible Are Computer Companies?

Please allow me to elucidate plainly upon my original point without the weighted "cult" rhetoric which bears an extremely negative connotation:

If you look further into various philosophies, manifesto's, movements, et al, you will find they most always bring one to question their current perceived reality. This applies across to pseudo-religion, cults, racist groups, some political movements, ad infinitum (e.g., environmentalism, punk rockers, liberalism, communism, nazism, freemasons, scientologists, *gasp* even some religions, et al etc etc). For example, if you go call up the local American communist party - do you think they will tell you that they didn't employ skepticism in shaping their idealogy? I thought not.

You have to make the distinction between that and the thoughts elucidated heretofore in the objectivist philosophy. You might then say: "Why do you feel so strongly about such things as political manifesto's? They are harmless.." Well, I have to admit - I too, had fell in a terrible ism pothole many years ago. I too had found that this had opened me up into a world of skeptical thinking. What I later found at the help of another is replacement dogma based on the seeds of that particular belief system presented.

And that is why I despise those wearing things such as objectivism, or environmentalism etc on their belt. Saying such things are harmless and only books flies in the face of those who are dedicated to these philosophies. Even in situations where the progenitors were revealed as complete frauds who managed to elucidate only one single, clear thought in their entire lives, people have still insisted on turning the happenstance into religions, cults, brotherhoods, movements, and so on. People will be people, no doubt.

Anyway, when glazing over the works of philosophers such as Russell, Godel, Nietzsche, Descartes, etc - do you see them concocting rigid belief systems? I thought not. Bertrand Russell even jokes as to how one would easily herd sheep with simple grains of truth. In Ayn Rand's case, she could barely conceal the fact that her books are really a manifesto. In contrast, Orwell actually wrote books based on the merit of his ideas alone - not some cultish ism manifesto philosophy.

Still, one asks what's wrong with the objectivist system. Well, as I said in my other post, it's mostly feel-good self-fulfilling blabble. Subjectivity seems to be lost in all this to "objective" selfishness. It's basically a simplistic look at the complex system we call human life. Black and whites are just so conveniently manipulative. If Ayn Rand really wanted you to think for yourself, she wouldn't have built such a rigid philosophy based on interesting grains of truth, but riddled with logical fallacies. "Objectivism"? Give me a break.

Note that my original response didn't say not to read Ayn Rand's books. It was only a warning to the possibly destructive thought systems she is trying to plant in the readers mind. Just take it with a grain of salt like one should take any other manifesto. Belief systems denying the intellectual evolution of the reader are for wussies :-).

Re:Please, oh please... by rsteele19 · 2000-04-11 13:45 · Score: 1 · on Aardman Animations Releasing New Animations Online

I've found a great program that is perfect for doing exactly that sort of thing: http://www.geocities.com/virtualdub/

not too fast by roman_mir · 2000-04-11 01:43 · Score: 1 · on TeraHertz Molecular Switch Arrays

The future does not look too bright for the redmond hill folks. The scientists figured out a way to speed up the processors to 100 Teraherz, however, as announced by the Micro$oft representatives this will not be nearly enough speed to run yet another version of Windows (code name "PaceMaker" or sparky)

The advancements in storage devices are even more depressing, it probably will be possible to put 10,000 Gigabits on a sugar cube sized device but the estimated storage that will be needed by "PaceMaker" is in 3 orders of magnitude away from that number.

It's the control panel, stupid!

CC website runs on Linux/Apache by Cy+Guy · 2000-04-10 23:41 · Score: 2 · on Microsoft Hires Ralph Reed As Lobbyist

Check for yourself here.

This might also be good time to time take another look at Jesux.

Optical 3D harddrives by roman_mir · 2000-04-10 19:16 · Score: 3 · on The End Of The Road For Magnetic Hard Drives?

Xerox is sponsoring a research of 3D storage devices that can manage tens of thousands of gigabits in a volume of sugar cube at the University of Toronto

10,000 GIGABITS IN A SUGAR CUBE by roman_mir · 2000-04-10 00:48 · Score: 3 · on 400 Gigabits Per Square Inch

10,000 Gigabits in a volume size of a sugar cube storage device made at the University of Toronto by Dr. Eugenia Kumacheva working at UofT and sponsored by XEROX.

http://www.geocities.com/roman_mi r.geo/NoFCFS.gif

and this is what I have to say about that.

Hey! by legoboy · 2000-04-08 22:24 · Score: 5 · on AOL + Time-Warner Worse Than Microsoft?

You would almost think it is impossible for anyone to control all the quality content on the web. After all... when a million monkeys at a million keyboards can make a million websites (http://www.geocities.com), why would people need to stick to the big sites?

Oh... Quality content. That means stuff that people want to read, right?

------
Following line: Good example of Fair Use.

Re:I hope he's not really an "anarchist" by Luis+Casillas · 2000-04-08 08:23 · Score: 1 · on FSF General Counsel Eben Moglen Talks On Upside

I always have to bracket that term anarchism, since it refers to no actually existent thing or quality.

No. Anarchism refers to a particular political theory.

One of the most thorough net resources on anarchism is An Anarchist FAQ Webpage.

Paper I wrote on the topic by Anonymous Coward · 2000-04-06 01:21 · Score: 1 · on Information On Cryptography And Effects On Society?

I wrote a paper with this theme in mind and *heavily* borrowed a title from Winn Schwartau. The biblio is all hyperlinked. http://www.geocities.com/harrisog/crypto.html Enjoy!

Lack of VST plugin support is bad by spiralx · 2000-04-05 17:30 · Score: 2 · on Jazz++ 4.0 Released!

The loss of DirectX plugins may be a downer on the Linux front, however.

Yeah, especially since Jazz++ doesn't seem to support VST plugins, which are pretty much the de facto standard, especially since Steinberg opened up the specifications last year(see here for some VST stuff). If they were supported then the lack of DirectX plugins wouldn't be so bad, but as it is it puts a serious downer on the audio side of Jazz++.

Abuse of Libel Laws Predicted by Baldrson · 2000-04-05 13:58 · Score: 2 · on UPDATED: Outcast: Censorship Under The Digital Union Jack?

In 1982, I wrote a short article on the potential abuse of libel laws by institutions intent on controlling the free flow if information. Some of it is still applicable.