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WiFi was never designed for ubiquitous coverage. That doesn't mean other people don't want the coverage, they're just aware of the costs/benefits.

*googelstalks you* Ahh. Maybe I can have Bryan walk over and bop you for your silliness.

I am one of those long-time WiFi zealots, and it is clear to me that people just don't want free ubiquitous wireless internet -- or they just don't care.

Here in Pittsburgh, there is occasional talk of some group trying to do this. There have been some people who have received funding, but they waste it, and their project evaporates. Between ten and twenty (or more) companies start off here, and either fade away, or move to some other city. telerama, hobnob are the two that stick out (for which I remember URLs to).

Largest public network here is run by ONE GUY who just went and built it himself, Shadyside WiFi.

Otherwise, there is chatter on some of the local lists, but by and large, nobody wants free city-wide wireless Internet. Just me.

I'll now bow out of this as I'm not sure how fruitful a philosophic /. conversation is going to be ;)

You'd be surprised. I've had some great philosophical conversations here. You just have to wade right in wearing your asbestos undergarments.

To stay on topic, one of the best essays written on this subject, IMHO, is Mark Twain's "What is Man?"

I don't see any parallel between a hurricane causing deaths and an abortion, at any level.

Then you are still caught up in dualistic thinking. You believe there is a fundamental subject/object distinction, that you are separate from the universe, and that consequently, you have free will. Understandable, but wrong.

For a simple essay on why free will is a null concept, read Mark Twain's essay, "What is Man?". For a more in depth understanding, read any Buddhist literature, especially that which deals with the concept of dependent origination.

Although the rest of your post is well argued, it does not deal with the crux of the matter.

I was attempting to bridge the gap between our understanding of selfishness and altruism, showing that what can be seen as selfless behavior is only enlightened self interest. I am a ntural believer in altruism, so it was hard for me to accept that we always actn out of our own self interest. Indoing so, I had to explain all of what I had previously thought of as "good" in terms of self interest, but it turns out that they are not incompatible.

Perhaps Mark Twain can explain it better than I.

I am also an Anarchist of the old school, Bakunin style. I perhaps lean closer to syndicalism than you seem to, but that is probably my radical labor activist background talking. I was an organizer with the IWW. Not many people know they still exist, or that as soon as Judi Bari started telling loggers that their rights as workers and protecting the environment coincided, someone decided to blow her up.

I agree that belief that naive selfishness is good is a horrible idea. But people need to be shown why that is true for them, rather than being hit over the head with abstract concepts like good, justice, altruism, or selflessness. As Robert Heinlein had Lazarus Long say, "Never appeal to a man's better nature. He might not have one. Appeal to his self interest instead." And so ironically, if we want to bring about a world of selflessness we have to use selfishness.

Property is about the centralization of will, through force if necessary, and so it is socialism by your definition. The Native Americans had very different ideas about property than European colonists did, but the colonists forced the natives to accept one centralized definition of property rather than let different ideas about property compete on merit. One can't in fact hold the standard definition of property and let that definition compete with others. One must stamp out all other definitions, because it is kind of pointless to have the idea of private property while letting people who don't believe in that definition use your property.

After all, if some group has not agreed to your definition, why should they respect your rights? There are plenty of cultures around the world that did have different definitions, but they were stamped out by those willing to take and hold property through force. That is why you see so few societies with different definitions of property, not because the standard definition won out in any kind of fair competition of ideas.

...the author shall:

12. Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.
13. Use the right word, not its second cousin.
14. Eschew surplusage.
15. Not omit necessary details.
16. Avoid slovenliness of form.
17. Use good grammar.
18. Employ a simple and straightforward style.

One of the things that can end your chances at reproduction is contracting a major STD. The urge to get ones face close to the genitals of one's prospective partner comes from that. If you aren't exclusive, you can at least look and see if they have sores. If you think you are, you can potentially smell any other sex partners they have on their crotch.

Homosexuality is evolutionary, too. In the same way that drone ants or bees who don't themselves breed are evolutionary, homosexuals can help their relatives procreate. They can give same sex realtives early experience that helps them get a mate (I know, sounds gross. Evolution often is.) They can also form same sex pair bonds that reduce violence and increase goodwill. If my two brothers and my cousin, between them, carry all of my genes (statistically likely) then helping them procreate will pass on my genes to the next generation. Genes don't care how they get passed on. Whatever works.

As far as victimization, choice, and consequences go, try reading Mark Twain's essay, "What is a Man?" for an interesting take on things.

...I found a picture of CmdrTaco's mother! Here's the link: http://users.telerama.com/~kristen/blog/images/cmd rtaco.gif She's the one on the left. And the right, right behind Taco boy, the asian woman. Yes, Tacoboy has two mommies.

Perhaps this is a way for Verizon to force themselves into the wireless throughput game? Perhaps it prevents WISPs from forming.

Here in Pittsburgh, there ain't much going on, 'cept at CMU, and one of the local mom and pop shops. There are a few players, but none who talkabout it -- it's taboo here, most people are happy with their dialup (Ugh!).

Mark Twain's view on originalty (I couldn't come up with my own)

I am a graduate student; my student funding covers tuition and provides a stipend, and I can buy into the university health care. My stipend, from which health care fees are deducted. I live in Pittsburgh, which is a very affordable city, and I pay $400 a month for my apartment-- about half of my take-home, monthly. But in Pittsburgh, this affords me the top floor and finished attic of a house; I live alone, and it's a very spacious, with big rooms, lots of windows, a balcony, and I use the attic as an office instead of the second bedroom it was marketed as. Of course, I spent a couple of months looking for a deal-- not all apartments are so nice for the price, but I did find one. I have my car that I bought and paid off before I quit the cushy job. I don't buy new clothes often, and I can use busses free with my student ID. I love to cook so don't eat out much. I am lucky, but the luck partly is of my making-- I spent a long time researching my options before quitting my job, and spent a lot of time making sure I had an apartment that I could afford and would like to stay in; I can't afford to move right now, or in the near future, without a team of friends with trucks and some scrimping to deal with overlapping security deposits. I don't have cable, but I have a cell phone I use carefully to conserve daytime minutes, and have people over to my house instead of going out all the time. I can afford wine and cheese, roadtrips and concerts, and that amazing dress I saw in the window at Express, but I can't afford to do them every week. That's fine with me. I spend four months a year on beaches and in the jungle, and I'm happy with my 15 year old television and no landline. I have scraped together savings in case of things like car trouble, family emergencies, and those "necessary" spur-of-the-moment trips I take when I see that there's an airline having a sale with round-trip tickets for $75 to San Diego. I have some money in long-term savings that I add to slowly, and as I said, I don't plan to be living below the poverty line forever. I have no problem working "odd" teaching jobs and programming or analyzing data for extra money, I just don't like having a boss giving me deadlines to do them on a weekly basis. Many of my neighbors are also living on what I make, and while they aren't students and so don't have the university health care, they do have government health care to help them out; most of them, however, have things like cable and take fewer trips. It's all about the choices you make; it costs very little to live from day to day in most of the U.S.; the things that cost more are the luxuries-- living in big cities, amenities, the different shoes that match every outfit you own, detailing your car, getting the newest graphics card. (My vaio laptop, that I'm using with Pittsburgh's fantastic free wireless access is six years old. My desktop is built from used parts.) Yeah, it takes more work. It takes better planning. But I'm loving it.

Did anybody like Torg better? I never played Paranoia but all the people I used to play torg with consistently liked it better than Paranoia, and for some reason always compared it to Torg.

Torg, I can say, is a GREAT game with a great, original story.

Frankly, I think there are few geeks that aren't fed up with NAT. NAT is a last-ditch technical hack to avoid address exhaustion that has now turned into both a severe impediment to the reliable functioning of huge amounts of Internet-using software and into a tool to allow price discrimination between home and business users -- after all, home users don't need to do anything but fetch email and fetch web pages, right?

I agree entirely with the author. It's incredibly frusterating to work around what's happening on the Internet. There are a lot of ways to pull it off, but they themselves are hacks and frequently involve introducing inefficiencies.

The fact that NAT is being used as a security tool says more about the pitiful state of out-of-box Windows IP security than anything about its actual value.

I've seen articles written by many, many frusterated computer scientist types. Stuart Cheshire (author of the famous Bolo and has written a couple of nice articles) has a particularly vitrolic set of responses.

He's sick of having to troubleshoot problems introduced by other folks. I can understand that.

Frankly, I'd never get services with a provider that required me to pay extra for more IPs or tried to get me to use NAT. The ISP I use, Telerama considers unlimited IPs (though only two statics) to be part of the basic DSL home package, which I consider pretty much what folks should be expecting from their ISPs. They don't do any of this ridiculous port blocking that has become increasingly popular.

Many bars are experimenting with it.

The Foundry Ale Works, a local brewpub, partnered with Telerama to provide wireless access. The access has been free for the last few months as a trial period, but next month they'll start charging. Telerama has wired up a lot of hotspots around Pittsburgh, including several cafes and restaurants.

The first time I used the Foundry's wireless access, I helped the cute bartender study for an exam. The next time I came by with co-workers, she bought us a round of beers. This wireless thing just might take off after all. :)

Yes, there are. The reasons you haven't heard from them are because they're usually gone within the year.

Statistics indicate that 80% of all new businesses fail within three to
five years.

In other words, it's not obvious that nice businesses fail because they're nice. They might fail just because new businesses fail. Likewise, rotten companies get more press and more attention, but that doesn't (necessarily) mean there are more of them or that their rottenness enhances their survivability.

Here is a link to the list of restaurants and places that Telerama has wireless service. Including my almost-favorite coffee shop, Jitterz!

One of the big problems with wireless connectivity around Pittsburgh is the local topology. There are lots of hills and valleys and comparatively little flat land. This has made cellular service rather unreliable in a lot of cases, and makes wireless service difficult outside of short ranges (at least, outside the relatively flat downtown area). It'll be a while before both providers offer service beyond small ranges, but it's a promising start all the same.

The cynics I've known were convinced that all human behavior was motivated wholly by self-interest, which, even if it is true in an ultimate sense, is an attitude guaranteed to close your mind.

That's not true. Read Mark Twain's perspective on the issue.

Here's a snip:

Y.M. If we grant, for the sake of argument, that your scheme and the other schemes aim at and produce the same result-- RIGHT LIVING--has yours an advantage over the others?

O.M. One, yes--a large one. It has no concealments, no deceptions. When a man leads a right and valuable life under it he is not deceived as to the REAL chief motive which impels him to it--in those other cases he is.

Y.M. Is that an advantage? Is it an advantage to live a lofty life for a mean reason? In the other cases he lives the lofty life under the IMPRESSION that he is living for a lofty reason. Is not that an advantage?

O.M. Perhaps so. The same advantage he might get out of thinking himself a duke, and living a duke's life and parading in ducal fuss and feathers, when he wasn't a duke at all, and could find it out if he would only examine the herald's records.

And continuing later on...

Y.M. Then you believe that such tendency toward doing good as is in men's hearts would not be diminished by the removal of the delusion that good deeds are done primarily for the sake of No. 2 instead of for the sake of No. 1?

O.M. That is what I fully believe.

Y.M. Doesn't it somehow seem to take from the dignity of the deed?

O.M. If there is dignity in falsity, it does. It removes that.

Y.M. What is left for the moralists to do?

O.M. Teach unreservedly what he already teaches with one side of his mouth and takes back with the other: Do right FOR YOUR OWN SAKE, and be happy in knowing that your NEIGHBOR will certainly share in the benefits resulting.

Y.M. Repeat your Admonition.

O.M. DILIGENTLY TRAIN YOUR IDEALS UPWARD AND STILL UPWARD TOWARD A SUMMIT WHERE YOU WILL FIND YOUR CHIEFEST PLEASURE IN CONDUCT WHICH, WHILE CONTENTING YOU, WILL BE SURE TO CONFER BENEFITS UPON YOUR NEIGHBOR AND THE COMMUNITY.

I recommend reading the whole essay, "What is Man".

If more people were cynics, the world would not only remove charlatans (though incidentally, I'm quite happy with charlatans who rob robbers; It's much better than people who aid and assist robbers for a days wages), but the world would be full of wonderful friendly people.

What is a cynic? As far as I can tell, a cynic is a person who is a realist and an idealist.

To be a cynic, you have to be a realist. You've already helped demonstrate that, when you wote "even if it is true in an ultimate sense". A realist looking at human behavior will give that serious attention, and meditate deeply on its consequences, as has Mark Twain.

But to be a cynic, you also have to be an idealist. That seems contradictory; How's that? Because in order to complain about the way things are, you have to have some idea of how things should be. You have to be an idealist.

If you are a realist but not an idealist, you become someone who is content ripping people off, or just doing whatever you need to survive, the effects of whatever it is be damned. This describes 90% of people, I believe. Perhaps 10-20% of people are content ripping others off, the other 70-80% are quite happy just doing whatever they need to do in order to survive comfortably, effects on others be damned. Being a Realist while discarding ideals is what gives the Right a bad name.

If you are an idealist but not a realist, you run the danger of trying to do good things, but failing miserably, because you are out of touch with reality. At worst, such failure can be dangerous. Being an Idealist while discarding reality is what gives the Left a bad name.

When you have both Idealism and Realism, you are a Cynic.

Incidentally, there is a name for what effective Cynics are called- that name is "SAINT".

Did Mark Twain reach Sainthood? In my eyes, Yes, because he has had a very powerful positive influence on my life, and the lives of many others, even beyond death.

There's a nice Red-bound LOTR and green-bound Hobbit that's available off and on at typical big stores. You might also find 'em on amazon.

I just found these two pages with lists of all the past tolkien cover art. I used to have the "fourth issue" (or silver anniversary) edition, except for Two Towers, which I just learned was a first edition paperback (which my father had given to me). Damned if I can find any of them anymore. Urgh.

Anyway, these were pretty cool, if anyone's actually still reading this thread after some jerk moderated my first post as a Troll. :(

Gallery of Cover Art
A list of different editions with descriptions, pics, etc.

There's a nice Red-bound LOTR and green-bound Hobbit that's available off and on at typical big stores. You might also find 'em on amazon.

I just found these two pages with lists of all the past tolkien cover art. I used to have the "fourth issue" (or silver anniversary) edition, except for Two Towers, which I just learned was a first edition paperback (which my father had given to me). Damned if I can find any of them anymore. Urgh.

Anyway, these were pretty cool, if anyone's actually still reading this thread after some jerk moderated my first post as a Troll. :(

Gallery of Cover Art
A list of different editions with descriptions, pics, etc.

Is it me, or do these screenshots look very much like GAIM? Take, for example, this picture. Why does it look so similar to, say, this? I find it a bit surprising that GAIM and this Linux AIM Beta client look so much alike; either GAIM did an exceptionally good job of duplicating the (unreleased) Linux AIM client or AOL just grabbed GAIM and branded it. In addition, has AOL really gotten up to the 1.1.14 stable release of this thing, or is it just GAIM 0.9.14?

Did I miss the link on AOL's page to the Linux AIM Client's source, considering GAIM is under the GPL?