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Ya ever feel like stuff you read in the news, about the 'dangerous potency' of certain products is actually a result of extremely calculated publicity efforts from guys who know a little bit about urban legendry and guerilla marketing?

Well you're a dumbass, then, because it happens all the time.

(holding nose while providing link to a Salon.com article about this very intentionally misunderstood beverage...)

I'll leave it to those more cynical than myself to accuse VA Linux of engineering this /. story as a roundabout way to drive sales of caffeinated beverages.

Frankly, they might be right, in the long term, more heat means more water evaporation from the oceans, which means more snow in places like antarctica and the arctic, where temperature could rise 30 degrees in the winter and not get above freezing. Increased snowfall leads to increased glaciation, i.e. ice age. The problem is, this may take a thousand years to happen, or only 100, we just dont know. In the meantime, all the other stuff will happen, rising sea levels, floods, increased hurricanes, etc.

The temperature of the earth and the surface climate have radically changed many times in the past, and without any any artificial greenhouse emmissions from humans.

Youre absolutely right, these things have happened in the past, through natural causes, but this doesnt mean that humanity, in its current form, would have survived and prospered in these times. The earth will go on if manhattan is underwater, but it will make it much harder to catch a cab.

The effect of the sun's radition, volcanos, etc have long had an effect on the earth.

Also correct, again, this doesnt mean that human induced warming is not occuring. Humans put out more CO2 each year than all the volcanoes on earth (~3 billion tons, net) If volcanoes have an effect, then humans will too.

There is some evidence for the earth's warming, but the evidence is far from clean and many observations (such as (corrected) satellite data and weather balloons) show no warming.

try here here here here here And as for your satellite data argument, I suggest you read Nature, v394, August 13 1998, p661-4 Stating that corrected satellite data actually shows .13 degF increase per decade, consistent with ground based obs.

WHen the New York Times famously said "Blame global warming for the blizzard"

Yes, the NY times did exagerate. It should have said "Blame Global Warming for the SEVERITY of the blizzard" The blizzard probably would have happened anyways, but the point is that GW makes weather events worse, because energy is pumped into the system.

But the use of hysteria and scaremongering to sell a political agenda is wrong IMO.

Is it scaremongering if its the truth?

Spielberg raises some profound moral issues involving A.I. in his new movie, drawing a number of critical raves but proving a disappointment at the box office

AI was a box office disappointment? It's made almost $60 million in less than 2 weeks. What do you call a success?

This machine, in one fell swoop, will let publishing houses stop having to warehouse and print so many titles. Costs will go way down, profit margins will go up, and perhaps more midlist authors will start being published again.

As for piracy . . . I think some people are only skimming the article. This is a big, complicated, mechanical, $30,000 machine--it's not likely to be the sort of machine that the "casual pirate" is going to be able to buy. If you're talking about the overseas printers that churn out physical pirate books--well, they're doing that now, with regular printing presses. The lack of a machine like this won't stop them either.

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On a similar note, check out a Salon article on MS's bullying tactics on poor schools: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/07/10/micro soft_school/print.html

It took me a long time before I decided to sign up, I would so much prefer micropayments because I really don't have much time to read. But then, I realized that Salon just needs the money, badly, and I would hate Salon to go down, so I figured I just couldn't wait any longer. Besides, it is great not having the banner ads there.

I think micropayments are a very big part of the answer, but I think it is a good idea to offer both.

Canned, generic programming on the air; canned, generic programming on the internet. Now they want to make audience-specific ads. Whatever happened to the days of audience specific radio, apparently the sponsors get preferred treatment over the listeners. Read this Salon artice.

Careful with that FUD you're slinging around there... Sure Cable has a higher peak bandwidth potential but neither you nor anyone else will ever actualize that potential...

Now wait a minute here, you're slinging some FUD, too.

Cable bandwidth is a shared resource, meaning that 10Mb/s is the most that can be flowing into or out of your neighborhood/apartment at one time. Furthermore, the bandwidth your modem can theoretically support is never the bandwidth your ISP will allocate to your area - typical individual cable connections are capped at around 500kb/s down and many are capped ridiculously low (in the order of 50kb/s) on the up side.

Yes cable is shared bandwidth between the end user and the cable company's equipment. And yes DSL is dedicated between the end user and the CO. But, all internet services make use of shared bandwidth . So if your DSL provider does not have enough bandwidth from it's provider, it will have exactly the same problems that you proclaim that only cable modem is susceptible to.

Now, I can't speak for every cable modem implementation. But I can speak about the implementation that I use. They have a total of 30Mb/s bandwidth dedicated to each hub, and a maximum of 500 houses per hub. If they achieve 25% sales of internet access, that's 125 houses sharing 30Mb/s of bandwidth. This is beyond the dreams of the cable company.

I have been monitoring my cable company's connection for over 3 years now by doing a download provided by the cable company every 30 minutes. Between me and the cable company I have never seen any slowdown of bandwidth at any time of the day at all. Now, I have seen slowdowns when connecting to the Internet, but never over the cable infrastructure.

DSL bandwidths, although theoretically lower, are dedicated in the same way as T1 bandwidths are - you well never share that lower bandwidth potential with your neighbor the porn freak, or his friend the MP3 fanatic.

This is just plain false. EVERYONE on the internet shares bandwidth. That's how it's built. You may not share the bandwidth with that person between you and the CO, but beyond the CO it's shared bandwidth. The only interesting question is whether or not there's enough bandwidth available for those who are sharing it.

I can prove, with data, that between my cable company and me, there's plenty of bandwidth. I can't prove, but it seems pretty obvious that the bandwidth that my cable company has purchased to get to the Internet is not enough. But switching to DSL does not necessarily fix that problem. In fact, it could make it worse.

My point: don't buy the hype that the telco's are putting out about cable infrastructure. If you want a great review of the basic differences check out this salon review. It's very good. And it supports the conclusion that the cable infrastructure is, generally speaking, better and faster than the DSL infrastructure.
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I also disagree that the movie is a fairy tale with a sci fi veneer. The technological/societal questions it raises about where we are headed are absolutely central to this film.

In any case, the question of soul isn't what i'm primarily interested in here. I was interested in seeing more attention paid to the question of crossing the line from simulating emotion to actual emotion. But i was expecting too much, because this would be asking the movie to highlight one of its own holes. A hole that it can't possibly close because we are fundamentally ignorant on the subject.

This was a great movie by the way and Salon's review is +5 insightful.

Some Militias certainly *did* engage in a lot of criminal activity. Many of them have as a central tenet of their charters to overthrow the government, which they consider illegal. There are cases of bank robbery, harassing people with bogus liens, supporting anti-abortion terrorists, etc.

As for eco-terrorists being Marxists or anarchists... well, I don't doubt some of them are. But look at the numbers here. I'd be more concerned about the so-called "Captains of Industry," those corporate leaders, who openly show contempt for the people and laws of this Country in their quest for profits. Look at situations and places like Love Canal, Romulus, and countless other places where big companies poisoned an area, and then left without even bothering to inform the local residents of the danger. You want your eyes opened? Look at the TRIS - Toxic Release Inventory System published by the EPA; there's even a nice search by city interface provided by another organization.
bukra fil mish mish
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Monitor the Web, or Track your site!

It has come to my attention that the entire Linux community is a hotbed of so called 'alternative sexuality,' which includes anything from hedonistic orgies to homosexuality to pedophilia.

What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:

• Linus Torvalds is an anagram of slit anus or VD 'L,' clearly referring to himself by the first initial.
• Richard M. Stallman, spokespervert for the Gaysex's Not Unusual 'movement' is an anagram of mans cram thrill ad.
• Alan Cox is barely an anagram of anal cox which is just so filthy and unchristian it unnerves me.

I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.

Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail, which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'

As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.

And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo slut!

Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children. To quote from the article linked:

'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'

Is this why you were touching your penis in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?

We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his homosexual lover blows firmly down the straw to inflate his scrotum. This is, of course, when he's not busy violating the dignity and copyright of posters to Slashdot by gathering together their postings and publishing them en masse to further his twisted and manipulative journalistic agenda.

Sick, disgusting antichristian perverts, the lot of them.

In addition, many of the Linux distributions (a 'distribution' is the most common way to spread the faggots' wares) are run by faggot groups. The Slackware distro is named after the 'Slack-wear' fags wear to allow easy access to the anus for sexual purposes. Furthermore, Slackware is a close anagram of claw arse, a reference to the homosexual practise of anal fisting. The Mandrake product is run by a group of French faggot satanists, and is named after the faggot nickname for the vibrator. It was also chosen because it is an anagram for dark amen and ram naked, which is what they do.

Another 'distro,' (abbrieviated as such because it sounds a bit like 'Disco,' which is where homosexuals preyed on young boys in the 1970s), is Debian, an anagram of in a bed, which could be considered innocent enough (after all, a bed is both where we sleep and pray), until we realise what other names Debian uses to describe their foul wares. 'Woody' is obvious enough, being a term for the erect male penis, glistening with pre-cum. But far sicker is the phrase 'Frozen Potato' that they use. This filthy term, again found in the secret homosexual 'Sauce Code,' refers to the solo homosexual practice of defecating into a clear polythene bag, shaping the turd into a crude approximation of the male phallus, then leaving it in the freezer overnight until it becomes solid. The practitioner then proceeds to push the frozen 'potato' up his own rectum, squeezing it in and out until his tight young balls erupt in a screaming orgasm.

And Red Hat is secret homo slang for the tip of a penis that is soaked in blood from a freshly violated underage ringpiece.

The fags have even invented special tools to aid their faggotry! For example, the 'supermount' tool was devised to allow deeper penetration, which is good for fags because it gives more pressure on the prostate gland. 'Automount' is used, on the other hand, because Linux users are all fat and gay, and need to mount each other automatically.

The depths of their depravity can be seen in their use of 'mount points.' These are, plainly speaking, the different points of penetration. The main one is obviously /anus, but there are others. Militant fags even say 'there is no /opt mount point' because for these dirty perverts faggotry is not optional but a way of life.

More evidence is in the fact that Linux users say how much they love `man`, even going so far as to say that all new Linux users (who are in fact just innocent heterosexuals indoctrinated by the gay propaganda) should try out `man`. In no other system do users boast of their frequent recourse to a man.

Other areas of the system also show Linux's inherit gayness. For example, people are often told of the 'FAQ,' but how many innocent heterosexual Windows users know what this actually means. The answer is shocking: Faggot Anal Quest: the voyage of discovery for newly converted fags!

Even the title 'Slashdot' originally referred to a homosexual practice. Slashdot of course refers to the popular gay practice of blood-letting. The Slashbots, of course are those super-zealous homosexuals who take this perversion to its extreme by ripping open their anuses, as seen on the site most popular with Slashdot users, the depraved work of Satan, http://www.eff.org/.

The editors of Slashdot also have homosexual names: 'Hemos' is obvious in itself, being one vowel away from 'Homos.' But even more sickening is 'Commander Taco' which sounds a bit like 'Commode in Taco,' filthy gay slang for a pair of spreadeagled buttocks that are caked with excrement. (The best form of lubrication, they insist.) Sometimes, these 'Taco Commodes' have special 'Salsa Sauce' (blood from a ruptured rectum) and 'Cheese' (rancid flakes of penis discharge) toppings. And to make it even worse, Slashdot runs on Apache!

The Apache server, whose use among fags is as prevalent as AIDS, is named after homosexual activity -- as everyone knows, popular faggot band, the Village People, featured an Apache Indian, and it is for him that this gay program is named.

And that's not forgetting the use of patches in the Linux fag world -- patches are used to make the anus accessible for repeated anal sex even after its rupture by a session of fisting.

To summarise: Linux is gay. 'Slash -- Dot' is the graphical description of the space between a young boy's scrotum and anus. And BeOS is for hermaphrodites and disabled 'stumpers.'

FEEDBACK

What worries me is how much you know about what gay people do. I'm scared I actually read this whole thing. I think this post is a good example of the negative effects of Internet usage on people. This person obviously has no social life anymore and had to result to writing something as stupid as this. And actually take the time to do it too. Although... I think it was satire.. blah.. it's early. -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot

Well, the only reason I know all about this is because I had the misfortune to read the Linux 'Sauce code' once. Although publicised as the computer code needed to get Linux up and running on a computer (and haven't you always been worried about the phrase 'Monolithic Kernel'?), this foul document is actually a detailed and graphic description of every conceivable degrading perversion known to the human race, as well as a few of the major animal species. It has shocked and disturbed me, to the point of needing to shock and disturb the common man to warn them of the impending homo-calypse which threatens to engulf our planet.

You must work for the government. Trying to post the most obscene stuff in hopes that slashdot won't be able to continue or something, due to legal woes. If i ever see your ugly face, i'm going to stick my fireplace poker up your ass, after it's nice and hot, to weld shut that nasty gaping hole of yours. -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot

Doesn't it give you a hard-on to imagine your thick strong poker ramming it's way up my most sacred of sphincters? You're beyond help, my friend, as the only thing you can imagine is the foul penetrative violation of another man. Are you sure you're not Eric Raymond? The government, being populated by limp-wristed liberals, could never stem the sickening tide of homosexual child molesting Linux advocacy. Hell, they've given NAMBLA free reign for years!

you really should post this logged in. i wish i could remember jebus's password, cuz i'd give it to you. -- mighty jebus, Slashdot

Thank you for your kind words of support. However, this document shall only ever be posted anonymously. This is because the 'Open Sauce' movement is a sham, proposing homoerotic cults of hero worshipping in the name of freedom. I speak for the common man. For any man who prefers the warm, enveloping velvet folds of a woman's vagina to the tight puckered ringpiece of a child. These men, being common, decent folk, don't have a say in the political hypocrisy that is Slashdot culture. I am the unknown liberator.

ROLF LAMO i hate linux FAGGOTS -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot

We shouldn't hate them, we should pity them for the misguided fools they are... Fanatical Linux zeal-outs need to be herded into camps for re-education and subsequent rehabilitation into normal heterosexual society. This re-education shall be achieved by forcing them to watch repeats of Baywatch until the very mention of Pamela Anderson causes them to fill their pants with healthy heterosexual jism.

Actually, that's not at all how scrotal inflation works. I understand it involves injecting sterile saline solution into the scrotum. I've never tried this, but you can read how to do it safely in case you're interested. (Before you moderate this down, ask yourself honestly -- who are the real crazies -- people who do scrotal inflation, or people who pay $1000+ for a game console?) -- double_h, Slashdot

Well, it just goes to show that even the holy Linux 'sauce code' is riddled with bugs that need fixing. (The irony of Jon Katz not even being able to inflate his scrotum correctly has not been lost on me.) The Linux pervert elite already acknowledge this, with their queer slogan: 'Given enough arms, all rectums are shallow.' And anyway, the PS2 sucks major cock and isn't worth the money. Intellivision forever!

dude did u used to post on msnbc's nt bulletin board now that u are doing anti-gay posts u also need to start in with anti-black stuff too c u in church -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot

For one thing, whilst Linux is a cavalcade of queer propaganda masquerading as the future of computing, NT is used by people who think nothing better of encasing their genitals in quick setting plaster then going to see a really dirty porno film, enjoying the restriction enforced onto them. Remember, a wasted arousal is a sin in the eyes of the Catholic church. Clearly, the only god-fearing Christian operating system in existence is CP/M -- The Christian Program Monitor. All computer users should immediately ask their local pastor to install this fine OS onto their systems. It is the only route to salvation.

Secondly, this message is for every man. Computers know no colour. Not only that, but one of the finest websites in the world is maintained by a Black Man . Now fuck off you racist donkey felcher.

And don't forget that slashdot was written in Perl, which is just too close to 'Pearl Necklace' for comfort.... oh wait; that's something all you heterosexuals do.... I can't help but wonder how much faster the trolls could do First-Posts on this site if it were redone in PHP... I could hand-type dynamic HTML pages faster than Perl can do them. -- phee, Slashdot

Although there is nothing unholy about the fine heterosexual act of ejaculating between a woman's breasts, squirting one's load up towards her neck and chin area, it should be noted that Perl (standing for Pansies Entering Rectums Locally) is also close to 'Pearl Monocle,' 'Pearl Nosering,' and the ubiquitous 'Pearl Enema.'

One scary thing about Perl is that it contains hidden homosexual messages. Take the following code: LWP::Simple -- It looks innocuous enough, doesn't it? But look at the line closely: There are two colons next to each other! As Larry 'Balls to the' Wall would openly admit in the Perl Documentation, Perl was designed from the ground up to indoctrinate it's programmers into performing unnatural sexual acts -- having two colons so closely together is clearly a reference to the perverse sickening act of 'colon kissing,' whereby two homosexual queers spread their buttocks wide, pressing their filthy torn sphincters together. They then share small round objects like marbles or golfballs by passing them from one rectum to another using muscle contraction alone. This is also referred to in programming 'circles' as 'Parameter Passing.'

And PHP stands for Perverted Homosexual Penetration. Didn't you know?

Thank you for your valuable input on this. I am sure you will be never forgotten. BTW: Did I mention that this could be useful in terraforming Mars? Mars rulaa. -- Eimernase, Slashdot

Well, I don't know about terraforming Mars, but I do know that homosexual Linux Advocates have been probing Uranus for years.

That's inspiring. Keep up the good work, AC. May God in his wisdom grant you the strength to bring the plain honest truth to this community, and make it pure again. Yours, Cerberus. -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot

*sniff* That brings a tear to my eye. Thank you once more for your kind support. I have taken faith in the knowledge that I am doing the Good Lord's work, but it is encouraging to know that I am helping out the common man here.

However, I should be cautious about revealing your name 'Cerberus' on such a filthy den of depravity as Slashdot. It is a well known fact that the 'Kerberos' documentation from Microsoft is a detailed manual describing, in intimate, exacting detail, how to sexually penetrate a variety of unwilling canine animals; be they domesticated, wild, or mythical. Slashdot posters have taken great pleasure in illegally spreading this documentation far and wide, treating it as an 'extension' to the Linux 'Sauce Code,' for the sake of 'interoperability.' (The slang term they use for nonconsensual intercourse -- their favourite kind.)

In fact, sick twisted Linux deviants are known to have LAN parties, (Love of Anal Naughtiness, needless to say.), wherein they entice a stray dog, known as the 'Samba Mount,' into their homes. Up to four of these filth-sodden blasphemers against nature take turns to plunge their erect, throbbing, uncircumcised members, conkers-deep, into the rectum, mouth, and other fleshy orifices of the poor animal. Eventually, the 'Samba Mount' collapses due to 'overload,' and needs to be 'rebooted.' (i.e., kicked out into the street, and left to fend for itself.) Many Linux users boast about their 'uptime' in such situations.

Inspiring stuff! If only all trolls were this quality! -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot

If only indeed. You can help our brave cause by moderating this message up as often as possible. I recommend '+1, Underrated,' as that will protect your precious Karma in Metamoderation. Only then can we break through the glass ceiling of Homosexual Slashdot Culture. Is it any wonder that the new version of Slashcode has been christened 'Bender'???

If we can get just one of these postings up to at least '+1,' then it will be archived forever! Others will learn of our struggle, and join with us in our battle for freedom!

It's pathetic you've spent so much time writing this. -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot

I am compelled to document the foulness and carnal depravity that is Linux, in order that we may prepare ourselves for the great holy war that is to follow. It is my solemn duty to peel back the foreskin of ignorance and apply the wire brush of enlightenment.

As with any great open-source project, you need someone asking this question, so I'll do it. When the hell is version 2.0 going to be ready?!?! -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot

I could make an arrogant, childish comment along the lines of 'Every time someone asks for 2.0, I won't release it for another 24 hours,' but the truth of the matter is that I'm quite nervous of releasing a 'number two,' as I can guarantee some filthy shit-slurping Linux pervert would want to suck it straight out of my anus before I've even had chance to wipe.

I desperately want to suck your monolithic kernel, you sexy hunk, you. -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot

I sincerely hope you're Natalie Portman.

Dude, nothing on slashdot larger than 3 paragraphs is worth reading. Try to distill the message, whatever it was, and maybe I'll read it. As it is, I have to much open source software to write to waste even 10 seconds of precious time. 10 seconds is all its gonna take M$ to whoop Linux's ass. Vigilence is the price of Free (as in libre -- from the fine, frou frou French language) Software. Hack on fellow geeks, and remember: Friday is Bouillabaisse day except for heathens who do not believe that Jesus died for their sins. Those godless, oil drench, bearded sexist clowns can pull grits from their pantaloons (another fine, fine French word) and eat that. Anyway, try to keep your message focused and concise. For concision is the soul of derision. Way. -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot

What the fuck?

I've read your gay conspiracy post version 1.3.0 and I must say I'm impressed. In particular, I appreciate how you have managed to squeeze in a healthy dose of the latent homosexuality you gay-bashing homos tend to be full of. Thank you again. -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot

Well bugger me!

ooooh honey. how insecure are you!!! wann a little massage from deare bruci. love you -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot

Fuck right off!

IMPORTANT: This message needs to be heard (Not HURD, which is an acronym for 'Huge Unclean Rectal Dilator') across the whole community, so it has been released into the Public Domain. You know, that licence that we all had before those homoerotic crypto-fascists came out with the GPL (Gay Penetration License) that is no more than an excuse to see who's got the biggest feces-encrusted cock. I would have put this up on Freshmeat, but that name is known to be a euphemism for the tight rump of a young boy.

Come to think of it, the whole concept of 'Source Control' unnerves me, because it sounds a bit like 'Sauce Control,' which is a description of the homosexual practice of holding the base of the cock shaft tightly upon the point of ejaculation, thus causing a build up of semenal fluid that is only released upon entry into an incision made into the base of the receiver's scrotum. And 'Open Sauce' is the act of ejaculating into another mans face or perhaps a biscuit to be shared later. Obviously, 'Closed Sauce' is the only Christian thing to do, as evidenced by the fact that it is what Cathedrals are all about.

Contributors: (although not to the eternal game of 'soggy biscuit' that open 'sauce' development has become) Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, phee, Anonymous Coward, mighty jebus, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, double_h, Anonymous Coward, Eimernase, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward. Further contributions are welcome.

Current changes: This version sent to FreeWIPO by 'Bring BackATV' as plain text. Reformatted everything, added all links back in (that we could match from the previous version), many new ones (Slashbot bait links). Even more spelling fixed. Who wrote this thing, CmdrTaco himself?

Previous changes: Yet more changes added. Spelling fixed. Feedback added. Explanation of 'distro' system. 'Mount Point' syntax described. More filth regarding `man` and Slashdot. Yet more fucking spelling fixed. 'Fetchmail' uncovered further. More Slashbot baiting. Apache exposed. Distribution licence at foot of document.

ANUX -- A full Linux distribution... Up your ass!

Listen stop crying about something you cannot change.

Ah, the tired old "crying" attack. You're a member of the cult too, eh?

Did you realy want the inventor of the internet (yeah right) as President?

*sigh* For the 4,387,295th time, Al Gore did not claim to have invented the Internet.
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#/usr/bin/perl
require 6.0;

Quite. For some "good" and "insightful" analysis that isn't oozing with derision akin to that of Penfield's and that of the rest of the the /. community, check out Salon's take on the news. It is far more unbiased and takes an honest look at what the ruling means by asking a variety of different "experts".

On a side note, "Still, a small degree of celebration is fair. The tags are out of our browsers for the time being. That is progress, real progress." What is all the fuss about smart tags? From everything I've read about them they seem like a very novel and useful new idea.

-acidboy

Just in case somebody still reads this stuff: I just signed up for Salon Premium, with the main motivation of supporting Salon. I really don't have the time to read that much, and for magazines like Salon, I would prefer to pay by micropayments. But then, $30 a year isn't that much, and I would hate to see Salon going down.

You can't downgrade someone's honest work because they are more successful, and if anything good comes out of this discussion guess what, Jerry and the other slammers will benefit too.

The tech is all there and that isn't news to anyone here. The point is that lots of attempts have been made, from 1st Virtual on up to e-Gold, and still we don't have anything in place that is going to get volumes of low-cost artistic product out to tens of thousands of people, using a system which matches the way the people want to be able to select and acquire such a product.

There are some experiments going on with prepaid cards that might work in limited geographical settings (thinking about something in downtown Tokyo recently). It also might work if the phone company or cable company offered you say 5 bucks a month that you could use in 500 content transactions to get at a large amount of stuff you want and couldn't get any other way (maybe McCloud makes a special comic for that purpose for example). Maybe Amazon.com would even want to get into that kind of business (you buy a $10 credit and they handle the micropayments), at least McCloud's reference to a single click for a small transaction certainly makes sense. Also I've seen floppies sold in little artsy shops, and perhaps you could store a few of McCloud's comics on a floppy for instance, though you still have to get it in a store and that is pretty low volume for a physical, atoms-not-bits product.

All these things are not purely technical problems, and we already have enough technology to deal with it. I found McCloud's latest comic to be well done, thought provoking even for someone who has been considering micropayment systems to artists and acceptance of lossiness.

One data point I'd like to add. I showed a DJ friend of mine the article by Courtney Love from last year about the record industry and artists. I ran some ideas I had for a lossy payment system which seemed to match what she was talking about (and happens to cover a number of points McCloud covered too).

I was surprised that my friend was totally unsympathetic to her, his attitude being that she and other bands just signed stupid contracts. Now this guy has a day job and I don't think he has ever gone through the kinds of things Courtney Love was talking about, so this kind of response is kind of take-it-or-leave-it. But it struck a chord when I read about the attacks on McCloud; other artists would never be forced to use some payment system they didn't want, but they and everyone else (except record companies perhaps) would have lots to benefit by promoting an open and frank discussion about alternative systems that could allow a larger number of people to make a living off of creative pursuits.

I'm going to keep thinking about this but one thing that would help is to get more real-life data points to use in designing my system and also in convincing someone to fund it. The mention of $600 a month for a 30,000 visitor per month site is very valuable. More please!

Until I read this Salon article posted today about Internet centralization (http://salon.com/tech/feature/2001/06/26/locking_ up_the_web/index.html for those who are sick of goatse.cx), and realized that I should do whatever I can to help the "little guy".

We need to support people running independent projects and work-alikes so that the entire breed does not die out before the net restabilizes. Unfortunately I posted this too late for anyone to mod it up so people can read it... blargh.

First off, I think it is fairly difficult for someone to say that something is or is not art. Today's NYT's has an interesting article on that subject. However, I am not sure that saying that everything can be art, or that nothing is art really helps anyone.

I know that there are a number of people working on digital art projects in the academic realm as well as in the commercial field. (MIT's media lab is a neat place, prob not the artistic ammunition you need) (something is wrong with RISD's site, I suspect they could provide good academic support.)

The first thing to say to defend the belief that digital works can be art is to draw the analogy to the initial receptions of impressionism (a la Monet Pissaro) and abstract impressism (a la Pollack, Kandinsky). Then, you would probably want to talk about some more examples of "art" that use technology as a medium. From an artistic standpoint (and I am not in any ways an artist, or an anuthroity on what it takes to be one) it seems that one would need a vision and a desire to create something that has meaning. I know that performance art is about the execution/performance. So, digital art could include things like video games, which has been discussed on slashdot before.

Overall, I must say that to make the sweeping generalization that digital "things" can not be art is a bit shortsighted. The evolution of technology has always had an effect on the ability to create art (most modern artists do not need to "learn" alchemy in order to make paint...).

We had Google engineers working very, very hard to get the service out by the time that Deja said they would shut down, in February.

At first it was not clear when Deja actually would shut down. Suddenly it was like, "Now it's going to happen next week," so we had to go live with whatever we had. We did not want the service to be down at all, so we decided to go live and then gradually improve it. You couldn't post initially, but now people can post again. We had to rewrite all the code.

I hope that this IPO doesn't affect Google's on-site masseuses. That'd be a shame.

Personally, I would still hold off on an IPO for a few months. While they could (potentially) start a trend if they did it now, they wouldn't get much at this stage in the game.

You are right by saying that pressure will play a much larger part in this artificial injection experiment since the gas will meet the water at a pressure presumably much greater than 1 atmosphere.

The water pressure at 780 meters is roughly 78 atmospheres, and at 930 meters it's roughly 93 atmospheres. So, duh! (pun intended)

1.) how much pressure will they have to exert on the gas to get it down to this level? (remember, you must displace ALL of the water for the entire length of the tube going down)

2.) will this pressure be greater than that needed to liquify or solidify CO2?

maybe transporting large quantities of dry ice to the bottom of the ocean is the answer! surely it won't melt or sublime at such low temp and high pressure ;)

You are right by saying that pressure will play a much larger part in this artificial injection experiment since the gas will meet the water at a pressure presumably much greater than 1 atmosphere.

The water pressure at 780 meters is roughly 78 atmospheres, and at 930 meters it's roughly 93 atmospheres. So, duh! (pun intended)

1.) how much pressure will they have to exert on the gas to get it down to this level? (remember, you must displace ALL of the water for the entire length of the tube going down)

2.) will this pressure be greater than that needed to liquify or solidify CO2?

maybe transporting large quantities of dry ice to the bottom of the ocean is the answer! surely it won't melt or sublime at such low temp and high pressure ;)

What it boils down to is that the copyright owners are too lazy and don't want to spend the money to enforce their copyrights, by nailing the individual violators. So instead, they've been strong-arming ISPs to "tear down the house" instead of "arresting the crack dealers".

Well, with the Feds settings such a good example, can you blame them?

A couple years ago, I was strolling through the new central branch of the San Francisco public library. It was famous being heavily wired (too wired according to some), so I was curious about the gadgetry. I saw the usual array of web workstations -- and the usual long line of people waiting to use them. But I also saw a huge mass of ancient vt-compatible text terminals, mainly used to access the card catalog, but also configured to access the web, using Lynx. No line here, or time limit, and a fair number of people were leisurely cruising the non-graphic web.

If you're involved with upgrading the technology in your public library, think twice before you toss those old terminals.

__

The problem with the NC model is that it relies on a stable, secure, high-bandwidth connection that has 99.9999% uptime. Can anyone tell me of a network that meets these requirements?

The counter argument is that no computer has a 99.9999% uptime either and that any system can fail locally as well. The response to this argument lies in the idea of local control. If my hard drive fails and I have a report due tomorrow, I can choose to put in a new hard drive and could have myself up and running again relatively quickly. The NC model places those decisions and priorities in the locus of control of someone else. Who is to say that they have my best interests in mind? If you want an example, look at the DNS problems Microsoft had a while back. As a network consultant and support technician, I unfortunately have to spend hours digging through the sludge of Microsoft's technical papers and knowledgebase hoping to find answers to this new problem or that. For three days, during the DNS debacle (can anyone figure out why they didn't have an off-site DNS?!?!... The Road Ahead for sure!), people were out of luck when it came to getting access to those resources. Let me tell you, if the phone system of the US was down for three days, there would be congressional hearings and someone would probably be facing jail time. Now, I'm not saying that a company should be held responsible for its website being down for three days, but if that company was also providing "essential services" (as the .NET strategy is hoping companies will), then I believe that the level of accountability should rise in proportion to the critical nature of the services that are provided.

We have a scary future ahead of us my friends. But you guys already know that, don't you?

I personally feel you can take your pick of about a half-dozen of the best Salon stories of the past year and walk away with the prize.

The continuing coverage by Eric Boehlert of Clear Channel Communications's widescale acquisition of radio stations and its effect on the diversity and quality of radio is possibly the single largest story nobody else is covering. Locally owned and operated radio is becoming a thing of the past. As an adjunct to this, their articles on the Nat'l Assoc. of Radio Broadcasters alliance with NPR in a successful push to quash the FCC's efforts to introduce low-power FM radio for city & local organizations is an interesting read.

The debunking of the Clinton White House vandalizing incident deserves praise, again because the majors are too embarassed at being taken in to give it any time.

Lastly, their technology articles are one of the few places online where those not technologically inclined can inform themselves on the issues without being talked down to. Their general coverage of digital rights gets much deeper and remains much more interesting than the major networks alarmist nonsense over Napster, viruses and DoS attacks.

I personally feel you can take your pick of about a half-dozen of the best Salon stories of the past year and walk away with the prize.

The continuing coverage by Eric Boehlert of Clear Channel Communications's widescale acquisition of radio stations and its effect on the diversity and quality of radio is possibly the single largest story nobody else is covering. Locally owned and operated radio is becoming a thing of the past. As an adjunct to this, their articles on the Nat'l Assoc. of Radio Broadcasters alliance with NPR in a successful push to quash the FCC's efforts to introduce low-power FM radio for city & local organizations is an interesting read.

The debunking of the Clinton White House vandalizing incident deserves praise, again because the majors are too embarassed at being taken in to give it any time.

Lastly, their technology articles are one of the few places online where those not technologically inclined can inform themselves on the issues without being talked down to. Their general coverage of digital rights gets much deeper and remains much more interesting than the major networks alarmist nonsense over Napster, viruses and DoS attacks.

I personally feel you can take your pick of about a half-dozen of the best Salon stories of the past year and walk away with the prize.

The continuing coverage by Eric Boehlert of Clear Channel Communications's widescale acquisition of radio stations and its effect on the diversity and quality of radio is possibly the single largest story nobody else is covering. Locally owned and operated radio is becoming a thing of the past. As an adjunct to this, their articles on the Nat'l Assoc. of Radio Broadcasters alliance with NPR in a successful push to quash the FCC's efforts to introduce low-power FM radio for city & local organizations is an interesting read.

The debunking of the Clinton White House vandalizing incident deserves praise, again because the majors are too embarassed at being taken in to give it any time.

Lastly, their technology articles are one of the few places online where those not technologically inclined can inform themselves on the issues without being talked down to. Their general coverage of digital rights gets much deeper and remains much more interesting than the major networks alarmist nonsense over Napster, viruses and DoS attacks.

I think most of the articles at Salon.com are very well-written and worthy of some sort of an award. They tend to look at all sides of the issue and bring up interesting points. I especially like Salon's series of articles about clear channel.

amoung the typical news goons I thought this story was very impressive. I generally don't agree with much that comes out of salon, but this article was obviously thoroughly investigated and I felt it was very well written.

Today'sSalon has an update on the plight of the so-called "homeless dot-commers". Turns out there's more to the story than initially posted.

Also, Newsfactor posted a piece yesterday titled, "Despite Cutbacks, IT Jobs Go Begging". The title says it all...

Today'sSalon has an update on the plight of the so-called "homeless dot-commers". Turns out there's more to the story than initially posted.

Also, Newsfactor posted a piece yesterday titled, "Despite Cutbacks, IT Jobs Go Begging". The title says it all...

I don't doubt that the video game industry will eventually outpace the the movie industry in terms of revenue, but by that time the difference won't be games vs. movies, it will be interactive media vs. non-interactive (legacy) media.

Chris asserts that Clear Channel is drivig people away from radio.... while that seems to make good horse sense, and I would love to have it be true (I can't stand Clear Channel for a number of reasons, some aethetic, some political... here's Salon's articles on why should should too), does anyone have any numbers to back that up?

- Of the bands/albums listed there as "important", none are all that important any more. The success of Beatles "1" aside, hardly any of those artists have released what I would call a "hit" album in the past 10 years.

- No band will ever "come out of the blue" any more and hit it huge. There is no such thing as a non-manufactured band anymore. U2 is currently in the midst of a sold-out tour, but if they were starting today, it's likely they wouldn't exist. They owe their early success to a core groups of fans and a bunch of radio stations that were willing to play their music. Those stations are now essentially run by the RIAA. See these articles:1,2. Bands today such as The Dave Mathews Band are the rare exceptions.

- The RIAA's business model is focused around promoting a small group of artists through the radio and other media which they mostly control. Having "free" music available over the internet breaks this model. The RIAA companies will no longer be able to promote the artists they want to promote (ie, the ones that they feel give them the greatest chance of profit).

- The RIAA's biggest fear is that artists will be able to promote themselves and leave the RIAA out of the loop entirely. It's only a matter of time before this really starts to happen. Good riddance.

-S

- Of the bands/albums listed there as "important", none are all that important any more. The success of Beatles "1" aside, hardly any of those artists have released what I would call a "hit" album in the past 10 years.

- No band will ever "come out of the blue" any more and hit it huge. There is no such thing as a non-manufactured band anymore. U2 is currently in the midst of a sold-out tour, but if they were starting today, it's likely they wouldn't exist. They owe their early success to a core groups of fans and a bunch of radio stations that were willing to play their music. Those stations are now essentially run by the RIAA. See these articles:1,2. Bands today such as The Dave Mathews Band are the rare exceptions.

- The RIAA's business model is focused around promoting a small group of artists through the radio and other media which they mostly control. Having "free" music available over the internet breaks this model. The RIAA companies will no longer be able to promote the artists they want to promote (ie, the ones that they feel give them the greatest chance of profit).

- The RIAA's biggest fear is that artists will be able to promote themselves and leave the RIAA out of the loop entirely. It's only a matter of time before this really starts to happen. Good riddance.

-S

The internet DOES NOT HAVE such a restriction.

To some extent there's a limit to how much you can scale- if 10 million people tried to read my 'Airwindows' site tomorrow, I wouldn't be charged extra, but the site could very possibly go down under the load, something I would just have to accept. My capacity to put information out globally does not equal anybody's _obligation_ to have it stand up to such loads. If I had anything especially important for everyone in the world to know about, I could put it out as open content, and have people mirror it and distribute it in a P2P way, and that _does_ scale.

But the real point here is that by the very nature of their approach to media, the AOLs of the world are put at a disadvantage, unavoidably. They must take a middle line (or whatever is safest and can be _spun_ as a middle line- you'll find them taking a quietly ultraconservative line on corporate power, obviously!). They cannot introduce content that's too 'niche'. Most of all, they must produce revenue. Not for them the capacity to cheaply fund a small web presence out of pocket change indefinitely! Everything they do has to _pay_ them, because their operations cost so damn much.

At the same time, you have media kingpins like Clear Channel Communications (real scumbags, btw- and it was Salon that had the story...) who take the corporate media suck-fest and escalate the hostilities- who put further revenue pressure on operations like AOL/Time Warner by outflanking them and out-NASTYing them in every way. Once you begin to play the 'driving revenue, appeasing mainstream' game you're at risk of being outcompeted on those grounds by total scumbags. You can't even be a _boring_ media monolith and be safe. Evidence suggests that under laissez-faire modern capitalism you _must_ be scum, or you get beaten up and your lunch money taken away, no matter how big you are. AOL/Time Warner is in no way safe just because they are big, unless deregulation is slowed or stopped.

And all the while, on the Internet, you still are one click (or one typed-in URL, remember- one Google search? etc) away from any person's niche content- hosted at that person's expense. Sure the sites can't stand a slashdotting, but so what? The information is out there. The thing to really watch out for is not that the Salons of the world get crushed- that's a pretty big niche and there will be others if there's a need to be filled. The thing to watch out for is any mechanism that might block the individual from putting their own information out there on the network- NOT in some wildly public way, that's not a given, but just OUT THERE at all. Nobody is guaranteed attention, but the nature of the Internet would be horribly compromised if anything reduced the ability of people to just buy some cheap hosting (say, under $50 a month- comparable to buying dial-up) and have their material linkable to, one click away from anyone who saw fit to refer to it.

Because to some extent this is a value-added proposition to the AOLs of the world, but it also potentially dulls the sales message, draws attention away from AOL/Time Warner properties, is content that's not owned by AOL/Time Warner etc., plus you have people who would really prefer individuals' abilities to reach a worldwide audience to be globally restricted on grounds of content. They might be making pr0n! Or advocating gay rights! Or suggesting parody is not against the law in Korea! Or that women shouldn't wear veils in Iran! So even the ability of niche people to connect to the worldwide electronic network is resented by some- and THAT is the area to watch out for. In particular, anything suggesting that Big Media should have control over individual Internet content should raise a red flag. (I see Microsoft's 'Smart Tags' as potentially a hell of a Trojan Horse in this regard, but there could be other issues ahead too.)

The article is talking about anti-censorship, and what do they do? They censor themselves!

Man, do you have Salon wrong. They were saying "Entertainment Weekly" prints f_ _ _. Salon has no such self-imposed restrictions.

Here, I did a search for "fuck" with their search engine and came up with 900 results, presumably the maxmimum number that will be returned. Here's the list. Enjoy.

Check out:

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/06/11/chil dren/index.html

Salon takes a look at the "protecting the children" mantra in the age of censorship. Very informative.

Note that in many cases these CD's are pressed and packaged locally. Imports are flagged as such and typically sold for upwards of 20.

The artists typically see only about 10% of the gross price -- the rest is divvied up along the supply chain, with the lion's share going to the record companies.

If you haven't already read it, read Courtney Love does the math on Salon, where she explains precisely where the money goes ...

I'm all in favour of getting something for nothing, but what about up-coming bands that don't have massive record sales who are losing money because people are distributing their material free of charge?

As some documentation for my statement :), I'll offer "Courtney Love Does the Math", which appeared a year ago in Salon. It's a good read.

His books are indeed special. Look at the amount of fevor that hits /. every time a reference to one of the books is posted. However there are a lot of things that LOTR and the Hobbit are NOT.

• They are not psychological dramas that explore the furthest recesses of the main character's psyche.
• Nor are they the first book to include dragons,
• ...or elves,
• ...or wizards.
• They are not metaphores for the Cold War,
• ...or of WWII,
• ...or the Industrial Revolution (actually this article and this article make a point that Tolkien was definitely influenced by the industrial revolution which was reflected in his books.)
• They are not a Green Manifesto.

I think the Village Voice article makes the best point of what they are and why the LOTR, the Hobbit, and the Silmarillion are important.

The Lord of the Rings said it was a valuable pursuit to create worlds. Not only create worlds but create the languages, myths, histories, people, cultures, and conflicts of that world. This of course was immediatly reflected in countless fantasy books of various qualities. In D&D and the games that followed. And, I think, in the mind set of those of us that program computers.

What is an Operating System but a (hopefully) consistant world where cultures (applications) can thrive. A computer language is not more or less contrieved that Tolkien's elvish languages. In fact the structure of a good computer language reflects the culture in which it was used (compare the "culture" of Basic to C to Perl) but we are lucky that we live in a time where our made-up languages can be used to earn good salaries.

There is a reason why the LOTR strikes a chord with many of us; we all love to create worlds. The LOTR is an example of how consistant and beautiful and exciting those worlds can be...

His books are indeed special. Look at the amount of fevor that hits /. every time a reference to one of the books is posted. However there are a lot of things that LOTR and the Hobbit are NOT.

• They are not psychological dramas that explore the furthest recesses of the main character's psyche.
• Nor are they the first book to include dragons,
• ...or elves,
• ...or wizards.
• They are not metaphores for the Cold War,
• ...or of WWII,
• ...or the Industrial Revolution (actually this article and this article make a point that Tolkien was definitely influenced by the industrial revolution which was reflected in his books.)
• They are not a Green Manifesto.

I think the Village Voice article makes the best point of what they are and why the LOTR, the Hobbit, and the Silmarillion are important.

The Lord of the Rings said it was a valuable pursuit to create worlds. Not only create worlds but create the languages, myths, histories, people, cultures, and conflicts of that world. This of course was immediatly reflected in countless fantasy books of various qualities. In D&D and the games that followed. And, I think, in the mind set of those of us that program computers.

What is an Operating System but a (hopefully) consistant world where cultures (applications) can thrive. A computer language is not more or less contrieved that Tolkien's elvish languages. In fact the structure of a good computer language reflects the culture in which it was used (compare the "culture" of Basic to C to Perl) but we are lucky that we live in a time where our made-up languages can be used to earn good salaries.

There is a reason why the LOTR strikes a chord with many of us; we all love to create worlds. The LOTR is an example of how consistant and beautiful and exciting those worlds can be...

While we're on the subject, here's an interesting two-part article in salon.com this week. Some interesting biographical info, and a few amusing thoughts on why the "intelligentsia" twist themselves into knots trying not to take LOTR "seriously".


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part One
Part Two

Definitely worth reading, but set aside some time.

Part One
Part Two

Definitely worth reading, but set aside some time.

But neither does the west treat people with respect. Look at the conservative movement in the US, there is even talk of making it law for women to stay home after having children be barred from working (here). Is descrimination still present? What about xenophobia or isolationism? The West is not the be all, end all of civilization. Just another silly stage.

You also may want to do a search on Salon for payola, or clear channel. Some very good articles.

It's even worse than this article presents... promoters will bill labels even is station managers decide to play the song on their own.

Check Pay for play and Fighting pay-for-play.

It's even worse than this article presents... promoters will bill labels even is station managers decide to play the song on their own.

Check Pay for play and Fighting pay-for-play.

There is a simple solution to this problem. Don't work for a company that has these policies! Then hope that the company you choose not to work for doesn't become a monopoly like Clearchannel or Microsoft.