Slashdot Mirror

Prohibition didn't work for alcohol and it certainly isn't working for drugs.

Per capita consumption of beer in the U.S., 1911-1915, 29 gallons.

In 1934, 13 gallons.

In the prosperous mid-fifties, 23 gallons. Drinking in America: A History

Not necessarily. PDF does not preserve text flow. It breaks up paragraphs into lines (or less if kerning has been altered), and places them accurately on the page.

This is not true. PDF is capable of preserving text flow if the document contains such information. See this as an example: if you open it in acrobat reader and move the text cursor using the down arrow, you'll see it travel correctly among columns and paragraphs.
No page description format will help if the page has been generated in a broken way: for instance, try extracting text from the tables of an html page generated by javascript.

If you have a multi-column layout, then a pdf-to-text algorithm (first step in screen reading) is likely to put column-2-line-1 between column-1-lines-{1 and 2}. Best of luck sorting that out.

In this case it is the pdf-to-text algorithm to be broken, and should be fixed.

But what bothers me is that they KEEP IT ON RECORD. Sprint asks you to confirm the last four digits of your SSN when you call customer service. This allows them to profile you, potentially sell it (legal or not), and more likely have it STOLEN and then sold/used for nefarious purposes.

And what's infuriating is that the last four digits are the most important; the first 5 are determined based on time and place of birth.

Laws weren't passed against Jews at the beginning. It was simply political and social ostracizing and blaming them for all the ills of society (sound familiar?). But hey, let's just wait until it's completely obvious before we do anything, right? Then there won't be anyone left to speak out against it.

Back in 1991, the Pittsburgh Press did a survey of reasons for DEA agents taking people's money when they come off of airplanes. It was classic profiling:

Agents in Illinois are told its suspicious if their subjects are among the first people off a plane, because it shows they're in a hurry.
In Michigan, the DEA says that being the last off a plane is suspicious because the subject is trying to appear unconcerned.
And in Ohio, agents are told suspicion should surface when suspects deplane in the middle of a group because they may be trying to lose themselves in the crowd.

My biggest wish is that people would actually report problems when they have them. This is how hardware and software is improved: users say what's wrong with it.

One of the things I hate to hear techs tell non-techs is that "all computers crash". Too often, when I worked in tech support, I had people let real hardware problems go until the warranty ran out because, well, "don't computers all crash?"

Also, how best to report problems. Error messages are important, even if you can't understand them. Copy and paste them if you can, or do a screen dump if you can't. While it's true that if e-mail is most important to you, then "I'm not getting any e-mail" is a valid description of your concern, it isn't going to help tech support help you when the real problem is that everything is frozen and you can't even move the mouse.

I suppose then you've got to have a section on dealing with tech support.

I would also recommend some reference to the expert effect: if you rely on advice only from tech geeks when purchasing hardware or software, you'll get hardware and software that only a dedicated tech geek would enjoy. King Ludd.

Jerry

>You are (and always have) bought a license to use a copy,
>and the rights you have on how you can use that copy are
>limited.

>You do not have, for example, distribution rights.

Funny. It's true, you don't have distribution rights. But it's not an example, it's the part that the copyright monopoly covers. The copyright monopoly is a monopoly on distribution.

When (in the United States) we purchase CDs, books, or anything else that is copyrighted, we own that copy. We can do whatever we want with it--make copies for personal use, destroy it, modify it--as long as we do not infringe on the temporary copyright monopoly that someone else holds.

The holder of the copyright monopoly is not even allowed at add further restrictions, such as adding a EULA forbidding resale. This has been taken all the way to the Supreme Court, as far back as the early 1900s (a publisher tried to add a EULA to their books) and as recently as Adobe trying to enforce the EULA on their software forbidding resale.

The court has also explicitly stated that the copyright monopoly must be interpreted as thinly as possible: we own the things we purchase, and the copyright monopoly is a restriction on what we can do with the things we own.

I can rant quite a bit longer on this:

http://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/?ART=9

It's even worse: recipes cannot be copyrighted! Instructions are not able to copyrighted, and that includes recipes. If there's extra text around it that is not really the recipe, that descriptive text might be able to be copyrighted. But the instructions to make food a specific way? That cannot be copyrighted.

The same is true of games. You can copyright a certain presentation of, say, Monopoly. But you can't copyright the rules that describe how to play the game Monopoly. (Trademark, of course, may forbid you from using the name 'Monopoly' if you choose to sell your version of the rules. But neither trademark nor copyright can stop you from selling your version of the Monopoly rules under a different name.)

You can read this at the copyright office web site.

So, no, I never did understand how computer code could be copyrighted.

In general, things cannot be copyrighted unless copyright-ability has been specifically extended to that kind of thing. The natural state of things is assumed not to be able to be copyrighted. So, you can't copyright a cheesecake, or a chair, or a scarf, unless Congress specifically says that you can.

I rant further about this at http://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/?ART=9.

Jerry

The argument is not preposterous. I may not have the terminology perfectly accurate, but the point I am making is none the less true. A 223 to the hip is more damaging that a 22 to the hip. Expanding rounds are a side-track. You seem bent on saying that all weapons are equal. The are not equal.

1. Excuse me? I've studied the rise of Hitler. I love history, particularly 20th century history, That is an area of history I know pretty well, in fact I would say I know that period of history better than probably any other. Let me tell you that some of the history parallels pretty closely with recent US history. If you were serious about what you say you'd be marching on Washington right now, AR15 on your shoulder and 45 on your hip. Just remember that this time they aren't after the Jews and Communists first. Remember the quote from Niemoller. The've already started: Guantanamo bay. You may not be aware that Dachau (which is where the Holocaust survivor was incarcerated) was the first Nazi concentration camp opened. It was the prototype of others to come. I might suggest you read the interview you linked and keep in mind Guantanamo bay. Get your gun and get marching.

You might note that in the interview he mentions that some concentration camp survivors don't agree with the arming of American citizens. I disagree with some of his conclusions on how best to prevent the same thing happening again. Once again I re-iterate, gun ownership isn't much good against trained, well armed soldiers. Even his argument about the Warsaw ghetto doesn't hold much water, they held out for a month before being overwealmed. A more herioc fight is hard to imagine, but it did not keep the 56,000 Jews who remained alive after the fighting from being executed or sent to concentration camps. According to an article found using google the number of German soldiers in the action was under 10,000.

2. You haven't answered the question. Whether you cannot buy an M16 at a corner store is irrelevant. One of the major arguments I hear in favour of owning guns is to overthrow the government. I just don't see that as practical.

3. My apologies, thanks for the clarification. I certainly agree that the government is there to serve the populace. Service is at the heart of Christian leadership.

4. I think I may have defined it earlier, but here goes: semi-automatic or automatic, large magazine, long range. In the previous list pick any 2. I'd put machine pistols/submachine guns in another category. But I'd exclude them on the same grounds that I would exclude assualt weapons.

Regardless of that, though - why does need have anything to do with a freedom? Why do you need to post on Slashdot? Why do you need to read news about foreign countries? Need has nothing to do with it - and that is a fundamental difference between your philosophy and mine.

Well put. I haven't articulated my thinking on that point very well. Let me put it another way, is the exercise of that freedom to the general benefit of society? I also have not problem with a freedom being exercised if it is neutral. I just cannot see that being the case with assault weapons/machine pistols.

I don't know if the movie touches on the significance of MJ being in this play. It's one of Oscar Wilde's famous comedies, and it's all about the dangers of living a double life.
The short of it; a young country gent(Algernon) goes to city to flirt around and cause trouble, but when in the city goes by the name of Ernest so that no rumours of his city life make it back to his home in the country. One of Algernon's city friends, Jack, travels to the country to dally with Algernon's young ward, and he also uses the name Ernest. Combined with some witty dialogue, a good does of sarcasm, and some smacks at the upperclass, its probably one of Wilde's best works. And Oscar Wilde, along with GB Shaw should probably be up there with Shakespeare among England's finest playwrights.
Summary here
Full text here

Don't forget spindle!

You are not, in the United States at least, under any obligation to follow an invalid EULA. License agreements for sales do not exist; if this is a sale, the EULA is invalid. As far as I can tell from the few songs I've purchased from the iTunes music store, these are sales. I buy the file, I get to listen to it forever without further payments.

This was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1906 in Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus; it has been continually affirmed by the Supreme Court and by lower courts, most recently by the ninth in Softman Products Company, LLC v. Adobe Systems Inc. The copyright monopoly must be strictly interpreted to not override the property rights of the individual purchasing the product.

What the courts have continually found is that calling a purchase a license does not turn a purchase into a license, whether you're buying a book, software, or anything else. Bobbs-Merrill did not call their EULA a EULA, but it is clearly recognizable as such today. It, like today's EULAs, is invalid insofar as it attempts to use the copyright monopoly to enforce restrictions that the monopoly does not confer.

Cites

• "a patent I filed in Australia"
  A patent? On this?! Will you patent the wheel & fire next?
• ___
• "the answer to all our email problems"
  It is? This idea is so wrong in SO many ways! Is this post a troll?
• ___
• "Currently unsolicited email from less than 0.2%"
  Where did you get this #? Other than out of your arse?
• ___
• "when shut down by Internet authorities"
  Who are these "Internet authorities?" Do they have flashy-badges?
• ___
• " register and regulate ... enforceability, financial accountability and liability"
  You work for the Gestapo don't you?!
• ___
• "need a license to own a gun ... so why not an email server"
  So sending email is like shooting people? Some aren't even sure a license to own a gun is a good idea.
• ___
• "MUST construct a global registry"
  "MUST"? So no other idea before or after yours will have merit?
• ___
• "email ... sent from an unregistered email server, it is simply rejected "
  Wow! You really want to kill email to save it huh?
• ___
• "The mail server owner(s) should also enter into a contract with its users"
  Wow, "contracts with users", why didn't anyone else think of that. Vile spammers would NEVER break a contract. This MUST be a troll post right?
• ___
• "binding them to abide by the mail server authority's rules"
  I await your plan to "bind" spammers to any authority's rules!
• ___
• "required the new owner to supply a security bond of (suggested) US$2500+"
  So, no email can flow out of a server without a "(suggested) US$2500+" bond? Hey, why not take 10 years per-capita income from some poor asian nation's ISP. You work for the tax department don't you?
• ___
• "message tracking and secure password authentication with every sending email client provides end-user accountability and ultimately financial liability"
  So EVERY client software must now be changed? You work for Micro$oft don't you? How about changing the operating systems too?!
• ___
• "any user needing to send to more than (suggested) 50 recipients at one time, should be granted by the mail server's administrator on a 'per-user' basis"
  Oh my... yeah, as if admins aren't busy enough, now they must answer every request from the unwashed masses of users who wish to send 51 christmas cards... ouch, that smarts!
• ___
• " if a 'standard' user send to more than 300 recipients in 24 hours"
  So EVERY server software must now be changed? You DO work for Micro$oft don't you?
• ___
• "Message ID tagging will still provide user accountability"
  Every email is tagged with some special ID huh? You work for the NSA don't you?
• ___
• " it will be required to pass stringent tests, certifying it unable to act as an open relay."
  Uh, open relays account for less than .1% of spam on the internet, have you been in a cave for the last 3 years?
• ___
• "I further propose that during a 'secure' SMTP mail server transaction ... challenging 'Server X' with a 128 character 'Session ID"
  Ah, finally, the "let's break SMTP" part. We all knew it was coming didn't we!?
• ___
• "The admin contact details to be required are: Name, Phone Number, Email Address,

After reading Watchmen and Crisis of the Infinte Earths, I found a proposal for a new crossover, sort of ragnarok of superheroes. Some people guess that Kingdom Come was inspired by this proposal, which was not accepted (but it is still copyright of DC.

House of Steel...you can't get cooler than that.

Wow, that explains how the Stuarts got so foofy. I mean, could you imagine any self-respecting highlander (or even lowlander) Scot dressing like this?

That depends on what state you're in in the US. Say we're both in Louisiana and you come up trick-or-treating. I open the door and shoot you. That's legal in Louisiana. Or maybe that's only legal if I'm white and you're not. Although that sounds like I'm race baiting, I'm not.

The iApps (iPhoto, iMovie, etc.) are scriptable using Applescript. For instance, there are scripts out there that hook iCal up with iTunes, so that iCal causes iTunes to start playing music at a given point in time.

You can run Applescripts from the command line

Applescript is anologous to VBA in the Windoze world, except that it is implemented at the OS level, rather than in each application. There's an API for programmers to hook up the Applescript engine to their code. AppleScript Studio, part of the developer tools, lets you create programs with a native Mac OS X interface, using AppleScript (instead of C++, Objective C or Java).

Put plain & simple, you don't want some crackhead/stoner/junkie driving a forklift around your warehouse.

Or someone who's drunk, or zoned out on legal meds, or had no sleep the previous night. That's why impairment testing can be a good idea.

But if the only way you can tell if someone is a drug user or not is by testing their urine, obviously it's not impacting their job. Chemical screens are a lifestyle test, and my lifestyle outside the job ain't nobody's business but my own.

But drug users do represent a higher risk in terms of attendance and health care issues

Not true. Some evidence show that cannabis users actually make better employees.

For more info check out Who Was Martin Niemoller?. Two major points. First, he was a pastor who was held prisoner in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps. Second, he was a major force behind the Stuttgart Confession of Guilt, in which the German Protestant churches formally accepted guilt for their complicity in Hitler's reign of terror. BTW, my original post is a quote from a speech he gave to the U.S. Congress in the late 60s.

The comic's pulp brilliance also relies upon Kevin O'Neil, the hyper-frenetic, stylistic artist who has brought us (along with writer Pat Mills) such sick-humor nightmares as Marshall Law (one of the original and best post-modern deconstructions of superheroes, but one all about the humor and the sado-masochism). Kevin got his start with British imprint AD 2000, responsible for such stalwarts as Judge Dread and Slaine, working with Pat on stuff like Warlock.

I recommend LoEG the comic quite heartily (despite Ain't it Cool's support. . .even a stopped clock is right twice a day). It's written in the tradition of Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton books, where he takes such characters as Tarzan and Doc Savage and writes his own 'more realistic' adventures mixing them with other pulp heroes and villains. Moore can't use these characters due to our criminal copyright laws (he wanted to originally with the Twilight of the Superheroes series, the proposed DC book of which Kingdom Come was a very weak but direct rip-off) so he had to go back to earlier characters.

For those with twisted humor and a high tolerance for violence, I especially recommend looking for the original graphic novel collection of Marshall Law, Marshall Law: Fear and Loathing.

O'Neill's over-the-top art work is as detailed as Moore's references, and without it LoEG wouldn't be half the book that it is.

Additionally, LoEG predates the show League of Gentlemen. As for the trailer, it looks fun, but also a bit sad as they felt the need to turn Mina Harker into a vampire. I suppose that's their idea of grrl power, the dumbest/most-hypocritical ploy in marketing history (baby, you've come a long way. . .not only can you smoke yourself into an early tomb, but now you can be as brain-dead violent as so many Neanderthal men!)

And whatever you do, don't eat poppyseed bagels!!!!

Do you know the original language?

Some time ago in a country probably not you're own, a goverment installed a computer system to track people census ratings, (how much they earn, where they live, what religion they follow).

The time was the early 30's, the country was germany. The rest is history.

Sadly most of that history seems to be that those who were not jews had nothing to fear. There is a famous quote by a german, Martin Niemoller (See here or search google wich has been neatly paraphrased for the /. crowd. "In america, they first came for the hackers, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a hacker. Then they came for the DeCSS, and I didn't speak up because I didn't watch DVDs. Then they came for Napster and MP3, and I didn't speak up because I didn't listen to MP3s. Then they came for the cryptographes and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a cryptographer. They they came for the researchers and the curious, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a researcher and didn't question things. Then they came for me, but by that time there was no one left to speak up" Richard Forno, Washington DC.

Those who think they are safe because they are not now being targetted are cattle who think the herd makes the wolves go away. All cattle ends up being eaten by the meat eaters (be they lions or maggots) and you are next.

Missed the Importance of Being Earnest tie-in, huh?

--
You only die twice, Mr. Bond.

>So...you've not really run any web site bigger than the one you run with pictures of your cat, eh?

Actually, I don't run a website at all...

>Seriously, "ideals" are fine, but given the realities of the world, this would get you laughed out on your ass in most companies.

I didn't say it would be easy. But sysadmins of the world were successful in in turning their webpage black for a few days a while back in support of the EFF...

Why not something similar now? If everyone refuses to act problems like this will simply get worse and worse. I wonder what Martin Niemoller would have had to say about the growing number of countries and people willing to censor the internet.

Its not like these countries are so big cutting their stats out from a US-based site (for example) is likely to make a hill of beans of difference to the money in the coffers of a company.

Only a few of The Metal Men survive. Platimun is a robo-hooker, Iron is a rusting construction worker, and Gold is in hiding because, well, he's gold and people want part of him! Dr. Will Magnus died ages ago, so none of them can be repaired if something goes wrong. Tin and Mercury have already died, and Lead is a living reactor shield in a closed-down nuclear power plant.

First they came for the socialist and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionist and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.

- Pastor Martin Niemoller

... was one of the Three Musketeers.

• Was not owned, issued, manufactured, specified by any Nazi, Soviet Communist or other official of a repressive state, and does not bear the likeness, symbol or insignia of any political organization or entity other than a free western democracy.
• Cannot be used to harm a human being, household pet, personal property or the environment, or to violate anyone's privacy, or to duplicate without authorization information that is protected by copyright or patent or by your country's National Security laws or regulations, nor to tamper with any electronic or computer system.
• Does not cause offence to, or ridicule or belittle, people of any religion, political belief, sexual preference, race, profession, place of abode, preference in operating systems or applications, physical, mental or emotional handicap, characteristic odor, drug or smoking habit, criminal record, personality or character.
• Does not embody the proprietary intellectual property of any government, corporation, religion, or any other organization, except that it may be or include a properly licensed copy of such a work, complete with a notarized receipt.
• Cannot be used to facilitate any abnormal sexual practices, and does not bear any obvious bodily secretions or residues of intoxicating drugs.

I think that that graphic novel is the finest Batman story written and I think if anyone could make a fabulous Batman movie it would be Alan Moore.

Except that because of the fact that DC(WB) told Alan Moore to take a flying leap over Twlight of the Superheros he left them in disgust. And after they took his beautiful concept, watered it down and turned it into Kingdom Come, I think the chances of involving one of the greatest writers of fiction in the 20th century are zero.

That being said, I have faith that as long as Frank Miller doesn't let some hack get ahold of his script (like RoboCop2 & 3), we'll see a fine fine film out of this.

I can see that everyone is worried about privacy and a "Big Brother" coming to get you, but if you aren't doing anything to arouse suspicion, you shouldn't worry.

In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me -
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

More directly, the poster also says:

I care a lot more that the e-mail of terrorists is being read at my small sacrifice than I care that the FBI sees that my friend and I are talking about burritos or whatever.

Second, if these hypothetical terrorists are stupid enough to transmit in plaintext over unsecured routes, then they're so inept that the FBI would capture them without the email surveillance. Let's face it -- the proposed measures won't be effective against true, dedicated opponents. But they'd be perfect against the large, undereducated, unmotivated public.

Existing laws on surveillance, wiretapping, etc., have been (easily) extended to cyberspace. They protect, nominally at least, the rights of citizens. Although the FBI guy intended the oppositie, he's right: These things must be balanced. What worries me is that many (upper) law enforcement officials seem to place no value on citizens' privacy at all. They don't seem clued in as to why people get edgy about this.

Until the government does understand that privacy is a valuable right, I'd rather it not get any more powers to poke around my life.

I am assuming from your comments that you did not recognise who Niemoller was, nor are you familiar with his famous comment that was paraphrased...

The complaint about inappropriate parallels to Nazi-ism was legitimate, in that there -were- parallels to (anti)Nazi-ism in the original message.

One version of his comments can be found here

But this is really offtopic

In Germany, they first came for the communists,
and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a Catholic.
Then they came for me -- and by that time there was nobody left to speak up for me.

There's a good version of it for modern times by Alara Rogers that I like, and have hanging around somewhere:

First they came for the hackers.
But I never did anything illegal with my computer,
so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the pornographers.
But I thought there was too much smut on the Internet anyway,
so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the anonymous remailers.
But a lot of nasty stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi,
so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the encryption users.
But I could never figure out how to work PGP anyway,
so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for me. And by that time there was no one left to speak up.

Google is really useful, let me tell you.