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Sounds like they learned it from George Bush.

The Federal Investigations Bureau (er, I mean, Federal Bureau of Investigations) is part of the executive branch of government. So actually George Bush is their boss.

Considering the clusterfuck that was FEMA in Katrina, I'd say now is a really good time to be a criminal.

I had a run-in with the FBI, DEA and local police all at once last summer (note to self: never give a ride to a prostitute). They thought (and may have been right) that the girls were buying drugs, as the cop informed me that the house I was parked in front of was a drug dealer.

So instead of arresting the dealer, they're trying to bust the people who visit. It turned out that one of the 2 girls I was giving a ride to had a crack pipe in her purse. They could have busted her for the pipe, but apparently theere were two teams of cops in a competition to see who could bust the largest number of drug users and doing the paperwork for a bust over the pipe would have made that team lose the competetion. So they made her break the pipe and sent us on our way after pointing guns at us, searching my car without warrant, arrest, or permission, searching me (not fun having a gay cop's hand on your balls), and searching the girls' purses.

Your tax dollars at work.

-mcgrew
(part two of the linked story)

Sounds like they learned it from George Bush.

The Federal Investigations Bureau (er, I mean, Federal Bureau of Investigations) is part of the executive branch of government. So actually George Bush is their boss.

Considering the clusterfuck that was FEMA in Katrina, I'd say now is a really good time to be a criminal.

I had a run-in with the FBI, DEA and local police all at once last summer (note to self: never give a ride to a prostitute). They thought (and may have been right) that the girls were buying drugs, as the cop informed me that the house I was parked in front of was a drug dealer.

So instead of arresting the dealer, they're trying to bust the people who visit. It turned out that one of the 2 girls I was giving a ride to had a crack pipe in her purse. They could have busted her for the pipe, but apparently theere were two teams of cops in a competition to see who could bust the largest number of drug users and doing the paperwork for a bust over the pipe would have made that team lose the competetion. So they made her break the pipe and sent us on our way after pointing guns at us, searching my car without warrant, arrest, or permission, searching me (not fun having a gay cop's hand on your balls), and searching the girls' purses.

Your tax dollars at work.

-mcgrew
(part two of the linked story)

I walked around the wall, and "click-click"- I was staring into the barrel of a shiny chrome .45 calibre automatic pistol. "Ow alai?" the gun's owner demanded, or "what do you want" in English.

No, this isn't Neo. This is Tom's brother Bob.

-mcgrew

This maybe a silly question but isn't hacking illegal in the usa as part of GW,Bush's anti terror laws?

Look, Wired can be forgiven, since they're clueless nerd wannabes*, but damn it man, this is slashdot. Look at the masthead. Then get your wannabe ass off my lawn and no, you can't have your balls back.

When I took transistor radios and turned them into guitar fuzzboxes as a teenager, that was hacking. When Delbert McGeekly quickly writes a few lines of code to get the server running again, that's hacking. When Joey Pimpleface finds some code on the internet that lets him sniff out some doofus' password, that is not hacking Goddamnit!!!!! That's cracking you clueless dweeb.

Only laymen refer to breaking into computer systems as "hacking". If you think breaking into computers is hacking, you don't belong at slashdot.

-mcgrew

*The linked text is titled "What is a nerd?" When I was a teenager, "nerd" and "geek" were insults. We were scorned, shunned, and made fun of. Who would have thought that some day we would actually be respected, to the point that the jocks and cheerleaders would actually try to pass themselves off as us?

Does anyone remember http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/mopiidx.html ?

Yes, "in the name of God" but by athiests pretending to be religious. If there is no God, what possible consequence would there be to a person for pretending there is? Especially when much could be gained by said pretense.

Look at George Bush. The man claims to be a Christian, and has hundreds of thousands of true believers voting for him. But look at his actions vs the beliefs he professes to cherish. As Governor of the state that executes more men than any other state, he executed more men than any other Governor of that state (Texas). He started the Iraq war against an enemy who did not attack us and posed no real threat to us. This despite the Commandment from Moses' Ten Commandments "Thou shalt not kill" and Jesus' injunction to "love thine enemies". He is no Christian; it is a pretense. He is the "wolf in sheep's clothing" Christ warned againt.

Look at Osama Bin Laden, who masterminded 9-11 despite the fact that Muslims must follow the same ten commandments as Christians and Jews. He is no Muslim.

Look at the Israeli leaders shelling crowds to kill one "terrorist". Neither the attacker nor the target in this case are true believers, but profess to be.

Look at Pat Robertson, who opined that a certain South American dictator should be assassinated. And look at his four thousand dollar suits, despite Christ's injunction to "sell all that you own and give it to the poor" and that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven."

These are not religious people. They are athiests who pretend to be religious for their own immoral gain.

In fact, most people in most churches either don't really believe in God or aren't sure. They're there because they're afraid of rejection by the status quo who are also there for the same reason.

Meanwhile I'm here on slashdot, certainly not preaching to the choir! What the fuck am I thinking? I should be in church grubbing for money!

-mcgrew

A self-professed one. If you want to paint lawyers as evil, don't go medeval, go even farther back, to a more universally recognized tome about evil, the Bible!

Luke 7:30 says "But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him".

Luke 11:46- "And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers."

Luke 11:52- "Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."

Shakespeare? Pshaw!

-mcgrew (linked diary concerns a young "lady" pursuing a law degree)

I would argue that the fucking article is bullshit, and I didn't even read the fucking article. And no, it's NAFPS it's AFS.* And pardon the use of obscene language (UOL) but I haven't gotten laid in a long fucking time and I'm in a realkly really bad mood (I broke up with the ugly fat chick (option two) last January and have been using option three and my favorite option three is going to prison. So I need a new whore. So I get up and the first fucking /. article I see is bullshit.

"Well," readers and mods who have bothered reading past the first paragraph are saying, "this is a troll or flamebait." Without reading TFC. So I'll GTTFP (Get to the fucking point)

This asshat is a programmer, not an evolutionist. Are you going to post a fucking article by someone with a PHD (or is a PHB) in biology and evolution about programming? WTF does a biologist know about programming? About as much as a programmer knows about evolution.

And how much does a programmer know about evolution? Considering the number of programmers who post at slashdot who make stupid statements like "winning the Darwin Award" when somebody is reported as doing something idiotic, not very damned much!

Evolution is about procreation, PERIOD. If you don't have any kids, YOU win the Darwin award.

Let me tell you about the woman I spoke of who's on her way to prison. She's addicted to crack. When she got busted, she threw her rock on the ground, so the cops found the pieces it broke into. So it wasn't "a rock" it was then "four rocks". So instead of probation, she's getting prison. She compounded the stupid error by soliciting two undercover cops for sex last month. How stupid can a person be? She's headed to prison; the DA insists on two years. She goes in front of the most hardassed antidrug judge in the county next month; she's on her way to the slammer.

So I'm not getting laid until I find a new whore.

One of her children drowned in 1998, after which she started smoking crack and selling pussy. The kid wasn't old enough to procreate; so the species has one less member who will pass along the "I have no swimming instincts" gene.

She has thirteen other kids. She's a grandmother several times over at the ripe old age of 45, what the ghetto folks call a "busdown"; I'm a cheap bastard who doesn't like paying top price for a young one. My stupid friend only charges me ten bucks.

This nerd has two children (that I know of). Intelligent people have a minimum number of children, dumbasses like my drug addicted hooker friend are too stupid to use birth control. Thirteen to two, she kicks my 142 IQ's ass in the procreation game (assuming I didn't have any Asian children. THAT'S evolution.

-mcgrew (sm62704)

*It's not a fucking pointy shovel, it's a fucking spade.

But then I guess you wouldn't have much of a foundation for bashing gays.

If brains were dynamite, these so-called "Christians" who demonize homosexuals wouldn't have enough to blow their noses. They should actually RTFB.

You're not supposed to judge. These asstunnels are judging.

What's worse, they'r ejudging hypocritically. Look at all the dickweed congresscritters who talk about "family values" and are caught with a mistress. Yes, in the large tome that is the Bible, there are one or two words saying something or other about sodomy, but nothing whatever about actually BEING homosexual.

They quote the passage (I'm lazy, look it up yourself) where it says you shouldn't make yourself look like a woman. But they all shave! I mean, whiskers are a secondary sexual charicteristic; nothing is more "making yourself look like a woman" than removing facial hair!

OTOH, adultery is one of the ten Moses brought down. If your hamster hiding is a sin, then most of us are going to hell for having a ham sandwich for lunch.

Hypocrites.

My opinion is that I want all of you to turn gay. Then I'll have all the women to myself!

-mcgrew

The pagan gods were real; they actually walked the earth.

The gods were prehistoric nerds! A likely misquote (I think it was Heinlein who said it): "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".

Thor was the inventor of the hammer. He was the first guy to pick up a branch and beat the shit out of the bigger cave man (if indeed he lived in a cave, man) who he caught fucking his woman. Imagine the awe and surprise of the jock cave men who had been picking on him and laughing at him! Go, Thor!

Promitheus was the guy who got curious (true nerd, he) who walked up to the forest fire while the rest of the tribe was running away in terror, went "wow, man, cool!", picked up a burning branch and started playing with it. Again, imagine the awe of his fellow tribesmen.

Zeus threw his burning branch (remember, fire came from lightning back then) at the jock who was bullying HIM.

And so on. The gods were real; they lived. They were homo nerdus sapiens, not unlike you or me.

-mcgrew

Look. I know it's bad form. But I submitted something yesterday that made this clear. And I don't normally, so as it is my first time ever... I'm sulking that my submission was rejected. Pah! it was much better than this shit. and my mum would agree with that (probably)

http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=332447

Chris
(never posting again. Ever. Stupid slashdot, I'm going to read http://www.kuro5hin.org/ - for at least a day. and then come back. again.)

everything still works! windows, locks, you name it

First of all, my last car's driver window wouldn't roll down by the time I got rid of it; old fashioned crank window with a some piece of it that finally suffered metal fatigue. It was a 1981 Chevy Celebrity.

If you designed the power windows in my new(er) 2002 Chrysler, WTF WERE YOU SMOKING?? You can only roll the wondows up or down with the key in the running position; won't even work in accessory. The damned windows should work even with the key off!

I worry about a bridge collapsing while I'm on it. When the battery shorts out, the wiondows aren't going down and the pressure isn't going to let you open the doors. I'd be willing to bet that most if not all the dead in the linked collapse had power windows!

If you do the elecrics on cars, PLEASE redesign the damned things so they'll work with the key in the "off" position ("hey, it's starting to rain, are your windows up?") and maybe even have a mechanicel something or other to get the windows open (or removed completely) if the car's submerged.

-mcgrew

There must be a safer way to compensate for your small penis than endangering people on the highway across the entire USA.

As the owner of an above average sized schlong (or rather, as one who is owned by said schlong), I fail to see what you Hummer and Escalade drivers are jealous of.

A big dick will not get you laid. By the time she knows how big it is, you've already reached home plate. If you're bragging about it, that lessens your chances of getting laid, as most women hate braggarts.

You wind up sitting on the damned thing. If it's a wooden chair, OUCH!

If you are unlucky enough to get a woodie in public, people will think you are an asstunnel/asshat who has stuck a bananna in their jeans in a pathetic attempt to get laid.

Imagine taking a shit and having your pecker hit the water. Not fun! At least, if you're heterosexual; I imagine gays don't mind a little fecal matter on their member.

Many (more experienced) women don't WANT guys with big dicks. Professional women tell me that most men with big tallywhackers think the dick is enough and don't need technique (although my take is that if she's getting money, she doesn't need to be satisfied). Some (obviously non-professional) women with tight pussies (non-mothers) are afraid you'll (ok Mr. SUV, I'll) stretch it out.

Anything that reaches past the clitoris is wasted.

So stop being jealous. A big dick is a detriment, not a plus. I wouldn't mind if mine were tiny if I could use it more.

Wait, this is slashdot, none of you have a clue what I'm talking about

-mcgrew

Ok, you want mine? here it is. It's a bit old; I haven't done a blagh in quite a while now.

It's also not about the environment. Who died and mede these asstunnels in charge of what people write in their blaghs? Who are these people, anyway? And why should I give a shit about them?

How did this garbage make the front page of slashdot?

-mcgrew

(if you want a blagh somebody actually liked reading, here are a few old ones of mine (believe it or not, I used to have fans)

-mcgrew

'Good, I'll let you come in and install it for me.'

Uh, Vista is easier to install than XP.

Never mind, I turned in my nerd license last winter.

Wait, you say that since I use Linux I can have it back?

But, since I'm using an older version I have to turn it back in again?

I'm so confused!

*head explodes*

-mcgrew

Never mind, I turned in my nerd license last winter.

Wait, you say that since I use Linux I can have it back?

But, since I'm using an older version I have to turn it back in again?

I'm so confused!

*head explodes*

-mcgrew

Here in Springfield, where Gail Simpson is an alderman, Klutzo the Clown was arrested for child porn.

It's true- Springfield, IL lost out on the bid to host the premier to the Simpsons movie because it's wierder than the cartoon Springfield!

-mcgrew

In 1979, the US Copyright Office granted a world wide copyright to the late Mr. Adams, who thought he still had plenty of time left. The copyright will not expire until you, too, are long late. The copyright was on a wholly remarkable book based on a radio play.

I never heard of the book. Indeed, nobody outside Islington (at least, nobody important) heard of it, either.

Also unheard of by anybody that matters is another book, called Uncyclopedia". In many of the nerdier civilizations in the outer eastern rim of the internet, Uncyclopedia has already displaced the great Wikipedia Britannica as the standard repository of all knowlege and wisdom, for though it has many ommissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects.

First, it's free, and second, it has the words "FOO BAR" in large, friendly letters on its cover.

In 1979, the US Copyright Office granted a world wide copyright to the late Mr. Adams, who thought he still had plenty of time left. The copyright will not expire until you, too, are long late. The copyright was on a wholly remarkable book based on a radio play.

I never heard of the book. Indeed, nobody outside Islington (at least, nobody important) heard of it, either.

Also unheard of by anybody that matters is another book, called Uncyclopedia". In many of the nerdier civilizations in the outer eastern rim of the internet, Uncyclopedia has already displaced the great Wikipedia Britannica as the standard repository of all knowlege and wisdom, for though it has many ommissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects.

First, it's free, and second, it has the words "FOO BAR" in large, friendly letters on its cover.

Several reasons why all newspaper sites are dog slow, but the main reason is probably adertising. Nothing makes a site suck more than advertising, unless the only ads are Google text ads.

First, graphics load slow. Animated graphics load even slower.

Loading those graphics from a different server make it even slower.

As I'm renting a little piece of real estate on your newspaper, I can stick an iFrame and do pretty much anything I want with it, including stopping the rest of your page from loading as long as I want. Judging from most newspapers' dog slow performance and the prevalance of supposedly professionally done pages that pop up a dialog box asking me if I want to debug their shitty javascript, this is exactly what happens.

Then there's said javascript slowing things down.

I'm guilty of breaking all the rules myself, but you'll notice that despite the linked page's extreme length and excessive number of illustrations, it still appears to load quickly. I say "appears to" because you'll notice a slight 2 or 3 second wait on a T1 for the first illustration to load. But the text is there "immediately", even though what's outside the visible screen is still loading. Kids, unless you want to make your audience wait until a graphic has loaded (and I've deliberately done this before), use those "hieght=" and "width=" operators in your <img> tags.

If you're using Front Page or some other inane HTML generator, stop it for God's sake! Learn HTML you lazy doofus! Those programs write abysmal code, slow to render and hard for a human to parse for errors, and they all produce many.

Also, you dumb kids should learn that my monitor is not the same size as your monitor, and is not set to the same resolution. Realize that you're not working with paper. You're not going to get it to look the same on any two different monitors or browsers!

Now get off my lawn you damned kids!

You were rightly modded "flamebait." I note the sentence "Before the trolls ask, yes, I have stolen and been stolen from". If the mods were wrong, it was modding you "flamebait" instead of "troll", you pathetic little troll.

I, too, have been stolen from; most recently by a whore who I stupidly let in my house (note to self: do it in the garage only!). I have also been widely Plagiarized. In fact I believe that several years ago (before your magazine started sucking donkey balls) my list of tested Quake cheats (I'd link to the archive.org copy which is NOT plagairized and is there with my blessing, but I'm at work and it's firewalled off), not just a list but explanations in my own words was IINM the most plagairized piece of work on the internet. People took it verbatim, including my (now defunct) site name and even its IP address but NOT including my name or copyright notice, and posted it loaded with ads.

This was still not stealing, despite the fact that they took my work and credit for my work, and MADE MONEY ON IT. It was copyright infringement. It was wrong (and I should probably sue the bastards) but it was NOT stealing.

Rape isn't stealing, either. Thieft is thieft, rape is rape and murder is murder. Neither murder, rape, or copyright infringement are the same thing. Note that in all four cases you may have lost something.

Lets stop calling a spade a "pointy shovel", shall we? IIRC one of the things that made me drop the subscription to your magazine was its slide into disingenuousness. Actually the disingenuousness was only part of the slide into utter mediocracy. Your pathetic rag became utterly useless, overtaken by its owners' greed.

I have been stolen from. My copyrights have been infringed. But they are NOT the same thing. As Will Muny (Clint Eastwood) said in Unforgiven about killing a man: "You take away everything he has, and everything he'll ever own". But it still isn't theift. It's murder.

And you are either a liar, or stupid.

-mcgrew

You were rightly modded "flamebait." I note the sentence "Before the trolls ask, yes, I have stolen and been stolen from". If the mods were wrong, it was modding you "flamebait" instead of "troll", you pathetic little troll.

I, too, have been stolen from; most recently by a whore who I stupidly let in my house (note to self: do it in the garage only!). I have also been widely Plagiarized. In fact I believe that several years ago (before your magazine started sucking donkey balls) my list of tested Quake cheats (I'd link to the archive.org copy which is NOT plagairized and is there with my blessing, but I'm at work and it's firewalled off), not just a list but explanations in my own words was IINM the most plagairized piece of work on the internet. People took it verbatim, including my (now defunct) site name and even its IP address but NOT including my name or copyright notice, and posted it loaded with ads.

This was still not stealing, despite the fact that they took my work and credit for my work, and MADE MONEY ON IT. It was copyright infringement. It was wrong (and I should probably sue the bastards) but it was NOT stealing.

Rape isn't stealing, either. Thieft is thieft, rape is rape and murder is murder. Neither murder, rape, or copyright infringement are the same thing. Note that in all four cases you may have lost something.

Lets stop calling a spade a "pointy shovel", shall we? IIRC one of the things that made me drop the subscription to your magazine was its slide into disingenuousness. Actually the disingenuousness was only part of the slide into utter mediocracy. Your pathetic rag became utterly useless, overtaken by its owners' greed.

I have been stolen from. My copyrights have been infringed. But they are NOT the same thing. As Will Muny (Clint Eastwood) said in Unforgiven about killing a man: "You take away everything he has, and everything he'll ever own". But it still isn't theift. It's murder.

And you are either a liar, or stupid.

-mcgrew

I will gladly pay the protection money to Yahoo to keep DRM away.

Not me. I not only want downloads to be free of DRM, but free of cost. MP3s should be the same as a commercial - they cost the band/label/company a small sum up front, but result in later sales.

If my friends can get you to listen to their stuff, you're likely to like it and go to their shows and buy their CDs. Buy their CDs, not "license" them. Unlike the RIAA labels and the bands (and bands' copyrights) the labels own, most indie musicians (including my friends) aren't thieves.

As Michael Crawford pointed out several years ago on K5, there are Tens of Thousands of free, Legal Music Downloads on the internet, which he linked in his article (I believe he has the story mirrored on his own site).

As I pointed out on my site, Yahoo sucks! If you use their "music search" (unless they've fixed it; the linked blagh entry is from Oct 2005) their only links are to music download sales. Free music isn't listed at all! I won't redundantly go into detail in this comment as I ranted enough two years ago. Where'd those horse bones go?

What's worse, "do no evil" Google is no better. Despite the fact that the love of money is the root of all evil, money is all they're about. Google's "advanced search" lets you search for specific file types, but not MP3s!

Yahoo (and Google) are on the side of mammon. Our internet (yes, fellow nerds, OUR internet) that started out as a free repository, free as in beer and free as in speech, has been nearly 100% co-opted by the god of Mammon, so badly that none of you remember the old internet, where we would bitch and moan and threaten boycotts of any site that dared es much as showed a banner ad (yes, even I've caved somewhet, having Google ads at the bottom of pages).

Now the internet is nearly 100% about commerce, with only a few truly free places. Yay sites like Wikipedia and Uncyclopedia. The Onion is another; they do commerce, but they don't shove it in your face and even have fake ads that make fun of internet advertising.

But these places are few and far between.

Someone needs to make a REAL music search; one where you can find not only The Station's CDs and paid downloads, but SHNs and Oggs of live shows. You can find them, but it ain;t easy.

This has no value at all to me. I don't buy downloads (OR bottled water, fools). MP3s are and should be free. When I buy music, I buy CDs from the bands at their shows. If I want RIAA dreck, I can get MP3s free off of the radio.

Buying MP3s, buying bottles of the same water that used to come free from drinking fountains, what's next, buying air?

-mcgrew

PS: Get off my lawn you damned stupid kids. And take your WMAs and bottled water with you!

I will gladly pay the protection money to Yahoo to keep DRM away.

Not me. I not only want downloads to be free of DRM, but free of cost. MP3s should be the same as a commercial - they cost the band/label/company a small sum up front, but result in later sales.

If my friends can get you to listen to their stuff, you're likely to like it and go to their shows and buy their CDs. Buy their CDs, not "license" them. Unlike the RIAA labels and the bands (and bands' copyrights) the labels own, most indie musicians (including my friends) aren't thieves.

As Michael Crawford pointed out several years ago on K5, there are Tens of Thousands of free, Legal Music Downloads on the internet, which he linked in his article (I believe he has the story mirrored on his own site).

As I pointed out on my site, Yahoo sucks! If you use their "music search" (unless they've fixed it; the linked blagh entry is from Oct 2005) their only links are to music download sales. Free music isn't listed at all! I won't redundantly go into detail in this comment as I ranted enough two years ago. Where'd those horse bones go?

What's worse, "do no evil" Google is no better. Despite the fact that the love of money is the root of all evil, money is all they're about. Google's "advanced search" lets you search for specific file types, but not MP3s!

Yahoo (and Google) are on the side of mammon. Our internet (yes, fellow nerds, OUR internet) that started out as a free repository, free as in beer and free as in speech, has been nearly 100% co-opted by the god of Mammon, so badly that none of you remember the old internet, where we would bitch and moan and threaten boycotts of any site that dared es much as showed a banner ad (yes, even I've caved somewhet, having Google ads at the bottom of pages).

Now the internet is nearly 100% about commerce, with only a few truly free places. Yay sites like Wikipedia and Uncyclopedia. The Onion is another; they do commerce, but they don't shove it in your face and even have fake ads that make fun of internet advertising.

But these places are few and far between.

Someone needs to make a REAL music search; one where you can find not only The Station's CDs and paid downloads, but SHNs and Oggs of live shows. You can find them, but it ain;t easy.

This has no value at all to me. I don't buy downloads (OR bottled water, fools). MP3s are and should be free. When I buy music, I buy CDs from the bands at their shows. If I want RIAA dreck, I can get MP3s free off of the radio.

Buying MP3s, buying bottles of the same water that used to come free from drinking fountains, what's next, buying air?

-mcgrew

PS: Get off my lawn you damned stupid kids. And take your WMAs and bottled water with you!

Who would ever imagine that kuro5hin would be useful?

;)

If (biggest word in the language) the verdict holds on appeal, she's out $200,000. This for 24 tracks; fewer tracks than in many CDs.

Google is failing me in my search for penalties for shoplifting, but a couple of decades or so ago my ex-wife was arrested for shoplifting. It was a misdemeanor, and I had to pay a $100 fine to keep her out of jail.

Had the woman in TFA walked into Wal Mart and shoplifted half a dozen CDs and gotten caught, the cost would have been minimal. In fact, a DUI would cost less than this.

The law is just wrong. If it were illegal to contribute to a candidate you weren't eligible to vote for, and if it were illegal to "contribute" to more than one candidate in any given race, we wouldn't have laws like this that are hostile to humans while friendly to corporations.

-mcgrew

PS: If you steal my cannibis, I have no legal recourse, fool! There's another example of a bad law.

1. The radio. Unfortunately, the RIAA labels are all you're going to hear there. Fortunately, if there is anything good playing (Buckcherry, the only 21st RIAA band I've heard that doesn't suck, comes to mind), in most countries it's still legal to record the radio. Young folks today are luckier in this respect than I was when I was young, as we only had tape. You can sample for a few hours and with little effort just copy and paste songs, and though they won't be CD quality they'll be better than any tape or MP3. You don't have to pay to hear or have a copy of any new RIAA song!
   
   
2. Internet "radio". Unfortunately, the MAFIAA is part of the Corporate Cartel that has purchased the American government (as well as most other governments) and have effectively killed internet radio in America. Fortunately, the US is not the only country in the world - you can still hear internet radio. This is where you'll find the good indie stuff.
   
   
3. P2P. But, er, even though your odds of being sued are around the same as winning a state lottery, it still gives most people pause. Why would I risk the one in a million chance of getting busted when I can legally sample the radio?
   
   
4. Word of mouth. If someone says "hey, I've got this great new CD", borrow it and make a copy. If it's copy protected, no problem - use the method in the above link, which will defeat any audio copy protection. No, your copy won't be perfect, but unless you have damned good speakers or phones AND damned good ears you won't hear the difference. If your friend is on the other side of the world, have them send an MP3 as an email attachment.

19. "Medicine" means allopathic medicine as practiced by the recipient of a degree of doctor of medicine.

- AZRS 32-1401. Definitions

19. "Medicine" means allopathic medicine as practiced by the recipient of a degree of doctor of medicine.

- AZRS 32-1401. Definitions

The Privacy Rule took effect on April 14, 2003, with a one-year extension for certain "small plans." It establishes regulations for the use and disclosure of Protected Health Information (PHI). PHI is any information about health status, provision of health care, or payment for health care that can be linked to an individual.[12] This is interpreted rather broadly and includes any part of a patient's medical record or payment history.

Covered entities must disclose PHI to the individual within 30 days upon request.[13] They also must disclose PHI when required to do so by law, such as reporting suspected child abuse to state child welfare agencies.[14]

Whoever modded that post flamebait is completely ignorant of the standards in the security agency, that commonly used security tools be completely open so that people can point out security flaws

My guess is that the folks from PGP have mod points. That's the only reason I can think of that it would be modded "flamebait", since the only one who would flame the GP for the statement would be someone from the company.

I hope the metamoderators mod the mods to karma hell.

-mcgrew

1. Someone hears Hinder's Go Home Get Stoned and thinks "wow, maybe these guys really are a rock band, and this is the one minor key whiney song, like Dream On on Aerosmith's first album; the song they played on the radio that sucked, unlike the rest of the album which got no air play at all. I mean, they're singing about getting stoned.
   
   They plug "hinder" into Morpheus, find out that Hinder sucks donkey balls, and Hinder's label loses a CD sale as the P2P user deletes the files in disgust.
   
   
2. User hears from a friend that Radiohead's tune The Fog is killer, so he plugs "the fog" into Kazaa, but instead of Radiohead's The Fog they get an indie band's completely different song by the same name, and it KICKS ASS. They spend their CD budget on my friends' band instead of Radiohead, costing Radiohead's label a sale.
   
   
3. They want an old out of print song from the 1950s, and download it with eDonkey. Unfortunately for them, the RIAA busts them for downloading the song they have copyright on that is out of print and not for sale, and sue. P2P user vows never again to buy another RIAA CD as long as he lives, costing all the labels LOTS of sales.

1. Someone hears Hinder's Go Home Get Stoned and thinks "wow, maybe these guys really are a rock band, and this is the one minor key whiney song, like Dream On on Aerosmith's first album; the song they played on the radio that sucked, unlike the rest of the album which got no air play at all. I mean, they're singing about getting stoned.
   
   They plug "hinder" into Morpheus, find out that Hinder sucks donkey balls, and Hinder's label loses a CD sale as the P2P user deletes the files in disgust.
   
   
2. User hears from a friend that Radiohead's tune The Fog is killer, so he plugs "the fog" into Kazaa, but instead of Radiohead's The Fog they get an indie band's completely different song by the same name, and it KICKS ASS. They spend their CD budget on my friends' band instead of Radiohead, costing Radiohead's label a sale.
   
   
3. They want an old out of print song from the 1950s, and download it with eDonkey. Unfortunately for them, the RIAA busts them for downloading the song they have copyright on that is out of print and not for sale, and sue. P2P user vows never again to buy another RIAA CD as long as he lives, costing all the labels LOTS of sales.

Yes, I was thinking the same thing...

getting close to making me have faith in our judicial system again... almost.

And they're finally starting to look into the Gitmo Habeas Corpus thing. It's almost like the courts are remembering it's their job to respect the rule of law...

and then the alarm clock went off and I woke up.

-mcgrew

PS- kudos for the capcha, nobody but us nerds would get "gigawatt". Not only does it keep out the bots, but dweebs as well.

I had my assteroids removed a few years ago. Surgery works much better than Preparation H. The link in my name below mentiones the doctor, whose name isn't McCoy. But you knew that, right? Because I'm not dead, Jim!

-mcgrew

PS- I submitted this story yesterday. WTF happened to "ineedbettername, among several other readers, writes..." Come on, samzenpus, give some credit where it's due. I'm sure that ineedbettername and I'm not the only ones who submitted this.

I love tech as much as the next guy, but why not keep it simple... Submerge the craft in water, and look for bubbles. :D

Yeah that'll work REAL GOOD in outer space!

mcgrew

I know this opinion will be like an STD here

You mean nobody will get it?

-mcgrew

PS: Beam me up!

I'd like to know if it can steer, and if it can land in such a way that it can fly again.

Strap a rocket to a bull's testicles and it will steer.

-mcgrew

"If assholes could fly, this place would be an airport." -Sign on the wall at Farley's Pub in Springfield.

Well, these guys are pirates. For all I know they may have unlicensed software, too. What do you expect from an outfit whose logo is a pig smoking a joint?

(disclaimer... well shit, I can't disclaim it, the linked story is mine. Damn, busted again!)

Hell, for just $2k I'd buy the stuff, take a peek, and return it. :)

Yes, but $2 Klingon is worth $420,223,877,965 US. So, well, I WOULD TOO!!!

(OK, IHBT. Damn!

It's not even copyright infringement! When an evil entity" Whose President and CEO and board members should be in prison says something is "wrongdoing", you can be sure it's the RIGHT thing to do.

Sony, you lost my business when my daughter played a PURCHASED Sony-BMG CD and you rooted my box with it. You never had my respect to lose - you are evil. As the (fairly old) linked blog says, YOUR COMPANY SHOULD DIE HORRIBLY.

Funny, I recall hearing a lot of Lynard Skynard on the label-sanctioned Pirate radio station. Isn't Van Zandt one of the artists whose CDs you put rootkits on? Speaking of Skynard, my CD of Second Helping was sampled from my vinyl copy. Fuck you and the mangy horse you rode in on. Sony's executives are IMO all shiteating scum.

Did they repeal the Audio Home Recording Act of 1978? Didn't that specifically LEGALIZE taping my albums? Oh, but I forgot - copying is stealing, war is peace, freedom is slavery, and of course, ignorance is strength! .

I was going to say that Sony can go to hell, but I just remembered that they will - every one of the evil pigfucking bastards who run it.

-mcgrew

(capcha is fittingly "steams"

It's not even copyright infringement! When an evil entity" Whose President and CEO and board members should be in prison says something is "wrongdoing", you can be sure it's the RIGHT thing to do.

Sony, you lost my business when my daughter played a PURCHASED Sony-BMG CD and you rooted my box with it. You never had my respect to lose - you are evil. As the (fairly old) linked blog says, YOUR COMPANY SHOULD DIE HORRIBLY.

Funny, I recall hearing a lot of Lynard Skynard on the label-sanctioned Pirate radio station. Isn't Van Zandt one of the artists whose CDs you put rootkits on? Speaking of Skynard, my CD of Second Helping was sampled from my vinyl copy. Fuck you and the mangy horse you rode in on. Sony's executives are IMO all shiteating scum.

Did they repeal the Audio Home Recording Act of 1978? Didn't that specifically LEGALIZE taping my albums? Oh, but I forgot - copying is stealing, war is peace, freedom is slavery, and of course, ignorance is strength! .

I was going to say that Sony can go to hell, but I just remembered that they will - every one of the evil pigfucking bastards who run it.

-mcgrew

(capcha is fittingly "steams"

The two English speaking countries that start with a "U" are in a contest to see who can take away more of their citizens' liberties and gain the most governmental power.

So far it's a really close race.

The English speaking countries that start with "A" and "C" are way, way, way behind; so far behind that they don't even count. Hiel WTA, comrade!

-mcgrew (old linked K5FP article is a rant explaining why the bill of rights is no longer meaningful)

Anytime you see a reference to Einstein, or the e=mc^2 equation, there's a good chance that the exciting new technology is bunk. Can we formalize this rule? It could be as important as Godwin's for understanding internet discourse

Only at slashdot and the other 3 real nerd sites. Well, I guess the 100,000 faux nerd sites could use it, too.

-mcgrew

Wrong. I was born in 1952, you're WRONG.

In the 1960s doors didn't open automatically like they do in today's stores. There were no digital watches or calculators. Cars had no seat belts, there were no stereo FM rock stations (link documents the first, in 1967), nor were there FM car radios.

In the 1970s doors opened automatically, there were digital watches and calculators, but no VCRs or microwave ovens (well, IIRC my mom had a microwave in the very late '70s, it was incredibly primitive and cost a shipload of money). There were no PCs (again, there was the Commodore PET, etc, in the very end of the decade, the Altair doesn't count). No CDs.

In the 1980s there were no DVDs, no cell phones, no CD burners for PCs. No flat screen TV sets. Air bags, ABS, and fuel injection was only on insanely expensive cars; they were brand new.

In the 1990s there were still no flat screen TVs, and there were no CrystaLens IOLs, the internet was brand new, and your cell phone was the same as a landline only more complicated to use; no email, text, or internet access on one.

Other breakthroughs I glossed over are things that we'd be better off without, such as tasers, pain rays, and the new non-nuclear super bombs.

Progress never sleeps, even if some good technologies die

-mcgrew (sm62704)

NASA's "Image of teh Day" is a "technician putting the finishing touches on Sputnik 1, humanity's first artificial satellite. The pressurized sphere made of aluminum alloy had five primary scientific objectives: Test the method of placing an artificial satellite into Earth orbit; provide information on the density of the atmosphere by calculating its lifetime in orbit; test radio and optical methods of orbital tracking; determine the effects of radio wave propagation though the atmosphere; and, check principles of pressurization used on the satellites."

Images are here.

While I'm waiting for the A/C "slow down cowboy" to holster his guns and go the fuck AWAY, I must pedantically point out that Sputnik was NOT the first satellite, and not even the first one launched from Earth. The moon itself, if current theory is correct, was formed from debris from the Earth and a Mars-sized object that impacted it.

It was the first man-made satellite launched, however.

-mcgrew (I was five when Sputnik was launched, and still remember it. The linked article doesn't mention Sputnik, but it does mention the first moon landing.)