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Microsoft's actions to kill OS/2 are well documented and need not be repeated here, except to say that they did a good job making it look like IBM's fault - MS basically told IBM if they distributed it with their own machines or continued to market it (and Lotus Smartsuite which died under similar circumstances) MS would do everything to prevent IBM from having access to Windows 95 in any sane way short of refusing to sell it to them. IBM capitulated, and the rest is history. For more details, the entire story is documented in the Findings of Fact in the Microsoft trial.

OS/2 follows BeOS, not to mention half a dozen other upstarts, in disappearing. I could say it's another nail in the coffin for choice, but I guess that nail was driven into OS/2's coffin in 1995. Right now the free software community seems to be the only place where choice may stay alive - by keeping platforms open, and by making source available allowing for the possibility of porting almost any open application to any open platform, choice has a chance, and probably the first chance it's had in several years. Vendors like Sun and RedHat have become a part of this (despite the constant protests about Sun, I think they're one of the good guys, NIS, NFS, OpenLook, OpenOffice, and many other innovations and applications have been given to the community over the years, and while Java isn't open source or free, it is source available, and the restrictions - given the 500lb gorilla that stands against Sun - are rational if disappointing.)

Linux, the BSDs, Atheos, and the upcoming BeOS clones, are only viable though because of this base of software that can either run on them now, or can be made to run on them. That means constant work keeping the base of free and open software relevent.

Making the alternatives stay sensible and rational will not happen by itself. Resources need to be devoted, and unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.

You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman [house.gov] or senator [senate.gov]. Tell them that choice is important to you, and that it's important that the base of open, free, software available with source is constantly kept up to date, viable, and relevent to today's needs. Tell them that you appreciate the efforts of free and open software producers, but if one day those applications ceased to be updated in line with modern needs, you would be forced to find less secure and intelligent alternatives. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how monopolies and a failure to keep the alternatives relevent destroys all three. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on his or her policy on choices, on relevence, and keeping the free and open software base relevent.

You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.

You do realize that Congressmen could care less what you have to say

On top of the fact that big business has alreay $voted$, the opinion of small factions like the technically inclined matters little. They care what Joe Blow thinks, and Joe Blow thinks his AOL internet is just super, as long as it works.

Defeating this quagmire of misrepresentation, where people do not vote because politicians do not take any notice of them, and politicians take no notice of people because they do not vote, will not happen by itself. Resources need to be devoted, and unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.

You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator. Tell them that their opinions and policies are important to you - that you have the right to vote them into, and out of, office. Tell them that you appreciate their efforts as a lawmaker, but that in the absense of full accountability, you will have to find less secure and intelligent alternatives. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how accountability only to big business destroys all three. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on his or her policy on freedom and democracy.

You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.

Much of the problem has to do with the short term needs of bandwidth providers. Many are bankrupt, those that are not still require substantial investment in better "end-point" equipment - routers, switches, hubs, etc. A chaotic telecommunications industry that is at odds with Internet systems (ATM and X.25 vs TCP/IP) is also creating uncooperate rivalries that makes it harder and harder to make efficient use of what's available.

The end result is that we are allowed to use 5% of what could be available without substantial further investment. Caps and per-byte billing is popular in a way it really ought not to be. These entirely unnecessary caps and metering charges immediately destroy many potential benefits the Internet can bring, from being a remarkable force for the distribution of new works of art (music, films, etc), to a point-to-point person-to-person network that far exceeds anything the telephone could have brought us.

Defeating this quagmire of untapped bandwidth and short term commercial interests destroying the long term viability of super high bandwidth digital communications it will not happen by itself. Resources need to be devoted, and unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.

You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator. Tell them that you're concerned about the clampdown on bandwidth use that's happening at a time when there is clearly a bandwidth glut. Tell them you appreciate the efforts of telecommunication companies to open up bandwidth in this area, but that in the absense of unlocked resources and free (as in speech) use of what's available, you will have to find less secure and intelligently designed alternatives to the Internet. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how arbitrary caps and per-byte charges destroys all three. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on his or her policy on opening up bandwidth.

You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.

All of which is a pity - a genuine Internet based electronic music (and content in general) distribution method that can raise revenues and other incentives for artists while making it cheap and affordable for people to obtain content is a wonderful thing. It can happen, it must happen: Distribution costs right now far out-strip revenues for artists (typically a few percentage points of the cover price of a CD will go to the creator) while prices continue to rise as the costs of bricks-and-mortar delivery methods rise above and beyond inflation.

Challenging the status quo - creating new networks that independent artists can use and which afford reasonable benefits for those who would otherwise have not the time to produce wonderful content - will not happen by itself. Resources need to be devoted, and unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.

You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator. Tell them that open, non-proprietry, content distribution are important to you - that you believe it is important for strong alternatives to the existing music distribution systems exist so that all voices are heard, not just those a small minority feel are the most profitable. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how locked up networks destroys all three. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on his or her policy on open distribution networks.

You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.

There are ways of fighting this kind of lock in. One is to produce open codecs that, byte for byte, deliver equivalent or better quality to those in the "private domain". This is what the Ogg project is trying to do. Indeed, it's what the MPEG project is doing - the specs are open in the sense that anyone can look at them and create readers and writers, although as detractors are quick to point out, those who do implement the MPEG codecs and share their work, commercially or non-commercially, with third parties, are usually obligated to agree to pay royalties. Still, this is a situation infinitely better than the Apple/MS/Real situation.

Defeating this quagmire of content locked by the tools that distribute it will not happen by itself. Resources need to be devoted, and unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.

You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator. Tell them that open, non-proprietry, codecs are important to you - that you should have the right to control that that you store on your own disks. Tell them that you appreciate Real Network's efforts in this area, but that in the absense of full disclosure, you will have to find less secure and intelligently designed alternatives. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how arbitrary file format locking destroys all three. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on his or her policy on open codecs.

You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.

OpenBSD needs SMP support. Theo, Todd, and the rest of the gang have done an excellent job, but virtually any reasonable non-Intel machine these days is an SMP based system. As well as the potential security and stability enhancements (imagine two processes seperated not merely by an MMU, but by not even being run on the same processor) and speed improvements (anyone who's run SSH on their 40MHz Sun Sparcstation firewalls knows the more raw CPU power thrown at OpenBSD, the better, and knows it's less likely insecure systems like rlogin and rsh will be used in their place out of raw necessity), SMP may well allow forms of security that haven't existed before - admins able to lock down processes in to specific CPUs, etc.

This will not happen by itself. Resources need to be devoted to implementing such functionality, and unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.

You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman [house.gov] or senator [senate.gov]. Tell them OpenBSD is important to you. Tell them that without OpenBSD, you would have to find less secure and intelligently designed alternatives. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on his or her policy on OpenBSD.

You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.

You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator. Tell them FreeBSD is important to you. Tell them that without FreeBSD, you would have to find less managable and intelligently designed alternatives. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on his or her policy on FreeBSD.

You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.

[etc etc]Sembler added in one of dozens of fund-raising memos the political parties turned over to a court hearing the first legal challenge of the nation's new campaign finance law.

These memos came to light during hearings challenging the country's new campaign finance law. That's McCain-Feingold, right, wherein the individual contribution limit is being raised to $2000 per year and soft money is banned? What exactly is it that opponents to this law want?

Ravi

How many people here even know how their own representaives voted on Homeland Security? For the record, here is the official list of who in Congress voted for and against the creation of Homeland Security:
House Roll Call
Senate Roll Call

(Interesting note, Senator Hollywood voted against. There are no permanent allies, only permanent interests.)

Is your senator in favor of Homeland Security? Are you? If the answer to those is not the same, then write a one page letter to your senator expressing your extreme displeasure with his/her actions. No, not tomorrow, not when you have time, RIGHT F*ING NOW! Fax it or snail mail it to their local office. (Not their federal office, snail mail doesn't get through there any more due to extended antrax checks.) They represent YOU! If they're not doing it right, make it clear to them.

Is your congressman in favor of Homeland Security? Are you? If the answer to those is not the same, then write a one page letter to your congressman expressing your extreme displeasure with his/her actions. No, not tomorrow, not when you have time, RIGHT F*ING NOW! Fax it or snail mail it to their local office. They represent YOU! If they're not doing it right, make it clear to them.

But what if they did vote the way you wanted them to? WRITE THEM A LETTER OF THANK YOU! Everyone likes positive feedback from the people who control their job. If your senator was one of the nine dissenters, thank them for standing up for what is right! Include with the snail mail letter a check (not cash) for $100 to their campaign fund. Polticians speak two languages; votes and money. Speak your mind in both, in enough numbers, and they WILL listen.

While you're at it, write a short OpEd for the local newspaper. Short, sweet, to the point. Maybe they'll publish it, maybe they won't, but they definitely won't if you don't send it.

This is a democracy. Your government SPEAKS FOR YOU! Your representatives represent YOU. Remind them of it. Daily. Make them scared shitless of losing their job if they cross you. Their first thought when they wake up should be "am I pissing off the people who vote for me?" Their last thought before going to bed should be "am I pissing off the people who vote for me?" As a voter, it is YOUR PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY to see to it that those who claim to represent you actually do.

250,000 Slashdot voters is 500 times the difference in Florida in 2000, for a Presidential election. Imagine the sheer power of that electorate in congressional elections, if only it would get up off its collective ass and do something.

The Patriot Act of 2001 labels many so-called computer crimes "terrorism." I openly state, I am a terrorist. I seek to instill terror in the hearts of my government of trampling on my freedoms, or of voting against my will. I seek to make my government live in fear of me and my power over them. I seek to give George W. Bush nightmares of crossing me.

I am a voter. Are you?

As a follow-up, it appears that the liability protection that was given for vaccines before the HSA was passed would be extended to vaccine ingredients, such as the disputed preservative thimerosal.

The Lieberman-Daschle amendment tried to strike this Republican substitute from the HSA, but didn't get enough support from the rest of Senate.

http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/111502summary.p df

Your congress(wo)man

Not sure they would pay much attention to a letter from a British citizen living in France. Which of course is one of the problems with attacking the people sending the spams.

The U.S. economy has got a lot to lose vis-à-vis UK & France either: being considered a spam haven jeopardizes every country's role as a trading partner of Europe since Directive 95/46/EC: This is an issue that does matter to the US, and the administration is taking it very seriously, because losing Safe Harbor status (which was not easy to obtain in the first place, given the state -or in many sectors rather: lack- of U.S. privacy law) simply means this:

(56) Whereas cross-border flows of personal data are necessary to the expansion of international trade; whereas the protection of individuals guaranteed in the Community by this Directive does not stand in the way of transfers of personal data to third countries which ensure an adequate level of protection; whereas the adequacy of the level of protection afforded by a third country must be assessed in the light of all the circumstances surrounding the transfer operation or set of transfer operations;
(57) Whereas, on the other hand, the transfer of personal data to a third country which does not ensure an adequate level of protection must be prohibited;

So, do write your letters/make your calls (up to the equivalent of $20, everyone!) to the representatives and senators now (even more so as a U.S. citizen of course) and I'm pretty sure you will get a reply, and get the right people concerned about the problem (it also seems to have worked the other way round as e.g. Americans announced to spamblock European sites when the a misguided committee of the European Parliament prepared to legalize spam by adopting an "opt-out" scheme earlier this year).

Here is a link to the proposed legislation, via the Freeside blog:

Proposed bill

Freeside is promising an analysis of the bill as well, but it's not up yet.

Some of the missions seem to have lacked, shall we say, hard science?

• What are the politico-economic effects to NASA of launching a Brevard County, FL US Representative into space as member of the shuttle crew ?
• What are the politico-economic effects to NASA of launching a US Senator into space as a member of the shuttle crew?
• Experimentation into the adhesive properties of Post-It-Notes (tm) in weightlessness. (okay so I made that one up - I hope).

Wellstone was the one dissenter to the Patriot act.

President Bush is not mentally capable of being a leader of a country. He only participates in selling parts of the government to the highest bidder. As Senator John McCain says, the U.S. government has been corrupted by money disguised as campaign contributions.

This is not meant to be excessively negative about George W. Bush. There are many people who are not mentally capable of being a leader of a country.

George Bush's performance is typical for someone who has been an alcoholic: 1) Many alcoholics are extemely likeable. 2) Alcoholics don't like conflict; they resolve conflict in crude ways. 3) Alcoholics don't like to be expected to think.

President Bush delivers the statements that are written for him. Have you noticed that the coherence of his statements has improved now that he has a staff of more than 5,000 in the White House? He didn't suddenly develop ways of thinking more clearly.

The U.S. is experiencing a social breakdown. Few good leaders are available. For example, President Clinton was the child of two alcoholics. His crude adjustment to sexuality is typical for a child of alcoholics. It must be said, however, that President Clinton was mentally capable of understanding the issues of running a government, and he also had spent many years teaching himself government policy.

Other aspects of the social breakdown in the United States are: 1) The U.S. has the highest percentage of obese people in the world. People in the U.S. eat when they are not hungry, a sign of unhappiness and social disfunctionality. 2) The U.S. has the highest percentage of its citizens in prison of any country in the history of the world. European countries have one-sixth the percentage of their citizens in prison. 3) The U.S. government lacks social skills. The government's answer to conflict is often violence. The U.S. government has bombed 14 countries in 33 years, killing more than 3,000,000 people directly. The number killed indirectly is credibly estimated to be more than 3,000,000 additional people. 4) The U.S. government has at least two world-wide police forces that are authorized to kill anyone anywhere -- the FBI and the CIA. This also shows poor social skills. 5) The U.S. government is the biggest manufacturer of weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. government is also the government that talks most about using its weapons.

Ever defended their actions? Hah! We even have our own King of Pork. Chairman of the Appropriations commitee does bring certain powers..

I can remember reading about the B1 Bomber project and how parts of the bomber were being manufactured in all 50 states at the same time. Think some Congressman wants to kill that project? What, cut jobs at home?

Democracy in America has become a joke, but hey, at least we have a McDonalds on every corner and first crack at Dude Where's My Car?...

Write to your senators. Write to your representative. Hell, write to your governors and state legislatures, just make it clear that you're not in favour of further restrictions on our rights.

Senators can be found here:

U.S. Senate Home

Representatives can be found here:

Representative Member Directory

If you do this, you have some form of say in our government, or at least a chance at influence. Don't waste it.

Here are two more sources contradicting Mr. Fisher's view:

• a senate debate on the subject from 1994, with substantial discussion of the issues and body of precedent.
• a piece on the subject from George Mason University's History News Network

He's an 800 year old gorilla.

No, no. You're thinking of Strom Thurmond (R-SC).

--

I'd call Senator Jesse Helms at least a 2 ton gorilla myself.... ;>

It is nice to see that Jesse Helms isn't taking a vacation in his last few months in office. (He's a short-timer -- he retires at teh end of the year.)

However, around six months ago I read a horiffic account of her six years in the North Korean prison system by a woman named Soon Ok-Lee and I was so appaled and so angry that something like this could go on on this planet that I suddenly became very interested in North Korea. I have a lot I'd like to share, so please forgive me if this post is quite 'information dense'.

First, I'd encourage all of you to read Ms. Lee's account. There is a condensed version of it at this URL (caution, not for children.. it may even give you adults nightmares..)

US Senate Testimony of Ms. Soon Ok Lee North Korean prison camp survivor

There are many other defector testimonies available too. They make fascinating if chilling reading, as does anything having to do with North Korea. All I can say is that North Korea is an enigma of sorts. An entire country operated like a cult. It is a cult in which to question the insane narcissistic ruler Kim Jong-Il is often to die. You dont believe me? Read her story!

Which brings me to the reason why I am posting. Kim Jong-Il's hold on North Korea, I think, is fragile. It depends on a very tight "blockade on information' coming in to the country. Can Slashdot readers think of any way to get news of the outside into North Korea ? Because if we could.. we could rid the world of a madman comparable to PolPot or Hitler or Stalin..

For some background on NK's techniques of control, read the following:

The Official Propaganda In The DPRK: Ideas And Methods

The Repressive System And The Political Control In North Korea

Here are some other resources: Two other defectors stories..

http://monthly.chosun.com/html/200201/200201280001 _1.html

http://monthly.chosun.com/html/200006/200006130003 _1.html

NK Human Rights website

North Korea's strategy

Anyway, please check them out, and please do something for human rights in North Korea today. They are human beings like ourselves and they are suffering.

I daresay that any of us outspoken geeks who found ourself suddenly transplanted into North Korea would soon find ourself in the position Ms. Lee. found herself in. Except that she lived and we would die for that ill-considered remark. She was one of the only people to ever be released from an NK death camp. She risked (and is risking) her life to tell her story.. Maybe we can help in some way.. Breaking the blockade of information coming into North Korea would help destabilize Kim Jong-Il. With all the technology available to the West, there has to be away.. And it would be nonviolent, since eventually HIS OWN PEOPLE would kill him..

He is one of the most evil people who have ever lived. Dont fall for the lies.. He is fooling so many people... he will never 'open up' he is afraid the world would find out about his crimes and NK's 'killing fields'. It is all an act. A lie.

One idea I had was to float toilet paper into North Korea on leaky balloons.. Most North Koreans have never seen toilet paper. Lets show them that the rest of the world is not trying to kill them. We want to help free them.

Instead of speculating about whether a database could be implemented or would even work, why not read about the real thing? According to this report that was issued by the US Senate, there's already a ballistics database in use today. It's contents are currently limited to fingerprinting handguns that have been used to commit crimes, but I don't think that scaling would be a big issue.

Don't compare yourself to the lobbyists, compare yourself to the corporations who hire the lobbyists. It's the opinions of the principles of the corporations that the lobbyists are being paid to promote, not (necessarily) their own opinions. You want your opinions to be heard; you don't (at least I assume you don't) want to be paid to present to elected officials the opinions of others.

How does this apply to your post? Corporate principles with access to a lot of money that really isn't theirs are having their opinions presented to elected officials in disproportion to their numbers. The question is not how do you as an individual directly get the ear of elected officials but, more generally, how do you get your opinions heard? One answer is that you contribute money or time to organizations that represent your opinions and, as a group, can afford to hire lobbyists to present them on behalf of the members of the organization. An example that is pertinent but much overused on Slashdot is the EFF.

There is no constitutional guarantee that you have the right to be heard by elected officials in any way other than casting your vote or raising your voice in a public forum (i.e. free speech). As a matter of fact, Senators weren't even elected by public ballot until 1914; they were appointed by the States.

But at least you elect your Senate

At least our Senator's can't be fresh out of Ivy League school and reflect the backroom ideology of the people we do elect. I'd rather this, than a 100+ year old bumbling idiot Senator from South Carolina, or those who Leak Intelligence Committee Reports.

Not Another Prime Minister from Quebec in Canada!

Better than a Red Neck from Ontario or British Columbia. Keep the french in, they add Style and Class to the country.

But at least you elect your Senate

At least our Senator's can't be fresh out of Ivy League school and reflect the backroom ideology of the people we do elect. I'd rather this, than a 100+ year old bumbling idiot Senator from South Carolina, or those who Leak Intelligence Committee Reports.

Not Another Prime Minister from Quebec in Canada!

Better than a Red Neck from Ontario or British Columbia. Keep the french in, they add Style and Class to the country.

Use your head. You know that the costs of education have been rising. You know that the burden of paying for college has largely shifted from grants to loans. (Well, maybe you weren't aware of that fact. Here's a link to some testimony given about five years ago from the President of the College Board.) So xers who went to college paid more for it than boomers. Pell Grants have not been meeting the needs of poor students. No doubt. Now put two and two together. The National Center for Education Statistics estimates that in academic year 1995-96 the average unmet need for a college student was more than $5000.

Okay, so here comes Daddy MBNA, knowing that Campus Katie is desperate and betting that if she gets in trouble her parents will bail her out. Well, Katie needs to be wise, but there's no reason to attribute blame to her. Because in all likelihood Katie is thinking about her future and doing what makes sense. And if she uses her credit to blow off a little steam, that's not the main thing responsible for her indebtedness.

And, in some cases, drinking a fifth!

Social security alone (23%) is TWICE the interest on the national debt (12%), and Social Security + medicare + medicaid = 42% is FAR larger than defense (16%) + national debt = 28%.

" In order to reasonably support the people expected to make social security claims over the next thirty years, taxes would have to be doubled at a minimum. "

"The money is there."

The Senate ALWAYS votes by roll call on legislation.

Are you sure? According to the bottom of this page, the U.S. Senate can voice-vote on a bill just like the House.

The Constitution also provides that one-fifth of the Senators on the floor (assuming that a quorum is present) can demand a rollcall vote ... The alternative to a rollcall vote usually is a voice vote in which the Senators favoring the bill or amendment (or whatever question is to be decided) vote "aye" in unison, followed by those voting "no." Although a voice vote does not create a public record of how each Senator voted, it is an equally valid and conclusive way for the Senate to reach a decision.

And because "a voice vote does not create a public record of how each Senator voted," it means that the bill didn't even have enough opposition (20%) to demand a roll call.

To point out that the capital D after Fritz Hollings' name means that he's a democrat. Dem's are fucking us just as bad as Rep's.

Actually, the internet has given politicians the ability to communicate directly with the world, not just their constituents, via their web sites and email. Not that they couldn't send out newsletters before, but email newsletters are more cost-effective.

Case in point: Back when I lived in NC, I signed up to be on my Senator's email mailing list. Even though I've moved to another state, I still get the messages, which include info like when he'll be appearing on various news shows and what cities in NC he'll be visiting that week.

I think it's the ability to get out timely information like that where the internet beats out traditional media. Newspapers and snail mail are more expensive and slower, TV and radio are here-and-gone so if you didn't write that information down, too bad. The internet is uniquely fast and long-lasting.

not trying to troll, but:
why don't you ask him?

A Dozen Dancing monkeys? zombie slave? that's rediculous... oh wait...

(for a little off-subject:) my 300th comment! jesus christ i wasted a lot of time on /.

If all you folks would just get behind Senator Fritz Hollings and his innovative, consumer-friendly Broadband Promotion program everyone would have cheap broadband access everywhere! ... and all the pay-per-view, copy-protected content you could ever want!!!!

If all you folks would just get behind Senator Fritz Hollings and his innovative, consumer-friendly Broadband Promotion program everyone would have cheap broadband access everywhere! ... and all the pay-per-view, copy-protected content you could ever want!!!!

Given that it is the legislators job to listen to and represent the views of their constituents (and no one else) then it actually does matter if people sending in email reside in that legislators district or not.

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Getting back to the topic of letters to a legislator, the article makes it sound like most legislators are at least trying to strike a balance - a staffer will read the email if it is from a constituent or if it is about an area the legislator is active in. This is probably a reasonable compromise.

Governor Bush did not deny "his help" as you so wonderfully state... in fact, he is spitting nails over this latest debacle.

I said that the guy who was in charge of fixing the voting process [democrat], denied Jeb's help [Republican].

And it's actually 32 million if we're splitting hairs

If I didn't see that asshole, Tom Daschle, today talking shit about how he's scared as fuck going into Iraq, I probably wouldn't even have started this thread.

Hi, I have a huge stick up my ass

No offense.

My vote is that it's a PR stunt by Softroad. Not a great one, because their WWW site is not even ready yet. The Whois on softroad.com lists an Antione Neron. He posted here about his intentions to start Softroad. Back in 1999 he was also involved in some Y2K group. (Google is such a great resource.) No connection that I can see to LivePerson.

Since I keep getting all my submissions rejected, maybe I should submit some lame PR thing. Maybe that will get posted!

Or they could be dooming it to fail to strengthen the argument of the Representative from Disney that it must be made mandatory.

You might also want to try Here, Here and...
OMG!
Here! They're planning something right now!

We have a few major AP articles on the state of spam today and where it's going, plus we have this tidbit hitting the national news.

This is an election year in the US!

Print out these articles and mail them off to your congresscritter and your class II senator if you have one. Include a letter talking about how spam is an issue to you and how you'd like to see things like this happen to junk e-mailers as well. Maybe talk about how similar the two are (using the recipients expensive communications equipment without permission or reimbursemet). Mail some letters off to anybody else running for those seats that you know of.

Write them! Now! You don't even have to get up off your asses for this one! Just open the damned StarWrite window and write!

Directly related, from Doc's blog the day after:

If you want to get an sense of how deeply the hand of Hollywood penetrates the skull-socks of their congressional puppets, dig the letter sent to Tom Poe by one of his state's senators. I've emphasized the relevant parts:

Dear Mr. Poe:

Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns about the intellectual property rights and the public domain. I appreciate hearing from you.

I understand your concerns about ensuring that. This issue is very controversial because Congress must protect intellectual property rights while still allowing ordinary Internet users to have access to public domain content. I appreciate hearing your suggestion for a tag system. I am carefully reviewing a number of proposals to address this issue, and as I do so, I will keep your views in mind.

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. For more information about my work for Nevada, my role in the United States Senate Leadership, or to subscribe to regular e-mail updates on the issues that interest you, please visit my Web site at http://reid.senate.gov. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

My best wishes to you.

Sincerely,
HARRY REID
United States Senator

On Thursday evening I shared this with Phil Windley, the CIO and blogger-in-chief of the State of Utah, and in the discussion that followed it became clear to us both exactly what kind of plans guys like Reid have in mind for the Net's natives: Indian reservations.

Like Hollywood, these guys see the Net as a distro system for industry-controlled intellectual property, and the public domain as a small preserve off to the side somewhere. Thank you for giving us this fine land with all the free building material. Now go off someplace where you can hunt and gather stuff that has no commercial value. And bury your dead while you're at it. They're starting to stink.

...

[Later...] I've been told that the very same letter quoted above has been going out from the offices of other elected officials. If that's the case, it's even creepier. Does anybody know? Is this thing just Sen. Reid's boilerplate, or is a much more massive cut & paste job?

Maybe that senator from Disney... ;-).

speaking of individually listing congressmen who are for/against these things. is there any easy way to get voting records for what they actually did in previous congressional votes? i'd like to know what my representatives voted for last term before i go to the polls.

Don't know if there is any easy way to check on it, but you can find records of any bill's vote in the senate here, and in the house here

it takes a little time though, gotta go through and click which session the bill was voted on during, then click the number of the bill itself, then click "Bill status", then wade thru all the different yea and nays it goes through till it ends (they vote on some of these things a LOT of times as various ammendments are proposed, and finding the real final vote can be a fair bit of work)

It's all there, but it's far from user friendly and designed for the masses, doubt many people spend much time doing it. Probably mostly done by reporters and politicians looking to dig up dirt on their opponents. An easy to use site that made it all fairly quick to check on would be sweet, but it would likely entail a lot of time and effort.

Don't say it...don't say it...I'm warning you...

Use Linux.

Damn, I said it.

Why the fuck don't people want exploits fully disclosed? Sure, I don't have a problem with waiting a week or so to give a team/vendor (yes, even Microsoft) a chance to roll out a patch before making it public. It's a courtesy, not a necessity.

<rant />
Clearly some sort of political action is required. I suggest:

1. The DMCA needs to be repealed or ruled unconstitutional. Hopefully the ACLU or the EFF will take a case that'll get us there. Or some rich philanthropist geek could 'violate' it by exercising their constitutional rights. But the best ploy is for every one of *us* to contact (visit,snailmail,fax,call,email) 'our' reps in the House and Senate, rationally outline our objections, and protest like hell if they don't. Civil disobedience, etc.

2. Abolish corporate personhood (same methods).

3. Abolish the lobby industry.

4. Abolish campaign finance. Make it publicly funded, free TV-radio spots (public airwaves) equally distributed among ballot-qualified candidates.

We've let corporations have far too much swing. I'm all for making a buck, but Jesus F***ing Christ...

And maybe we should all pay a visit to Fritz Hollings' website [senate.gov] while we're at it so he too can feel the love.

Almost wish I hadn't followed that link. I almost puked when I read this. 'Defending the Consumer' and 'Protecting the Children', indeed. How low can these guys sink? Every time I think they've hit bottom, they find new depths to plumb.

bleh...

"So everyone, stop hammering the SSH site and give the RIAA [riaa.org] the affection they so sorely need."

It's already 403ed, so there's no fun in /.ing them any more. Instead, I'm going to go for the throat by visiting Sony and BMG and any other RIAA members I can think of.

And maybe we should all pay a visit to Fritz Hollings' website while we're at it so he too can feel the love.

I found this line on his page.:

One of the most respected voices on national security and civil liberties, Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. has earned national and international recognition as a policy innovator, effective legislator and party spokesman on a wide range of key issues.

Now that is really funny, because his bill that can be summarized as:

Anti-counterfeiting Amendments of 2002 - Amends the Federal criminal code to prohibit trafficking in an "illicit authentication feature." Defines that term to mean an authentication feature that: (1) without the authorization of the respective copyright owner, has been tampered with or altered so as to facilitate the reproduction or distribution of a phono-record, a copy of a computer program, a copy of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, or documentation or packaging, in violation of the rights of the copyright owner; (2) is genuine, but has been distributed, or is intended for distribution, without the authorization of the respective copyright owner; or (3) appears to be genuine but is not.

does not reflect any civil liberties. =) The question is, if I see something on the news and tell my friends about it, is it goin to be illegal? First of all, I am not 'authorized' to tell it, secondly it is genuine, but has been distirbuted, and the last one, it might appear to be true.. but its not(?). Sooner or later we'll have leather masks with zippers on our mouths, that would zip us up anytime we say something without authorization. Soungs like a bondage session to me :)