Slashdot Mirror

"Be like water"
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee

Hah, I was going to post 'The same way: Ridicule and disgust.'

I think we are very quickly approaching the point where something has to break. Either the government steps up and admits that it doesn't give a shit, or people in general start to notice what is going on and there are major problems.

(I know patents and copyrights are not the same thing, but they are symptoms of the same problem. Bear with me here.)

The RIAA has started suing everyone and their grandmother (literally) and the general populace is starting to realize how unfair it is, and that the tactics the RIAA is using are -allowed- by the government.

Patents are starting to prevent cool devices from existing, and threatening the ones we already have. (Blackberry.) There have been quite a few reports lately about 'x device will have to be disconnected because someone else hass a patent' etc. Discomfort enough people with money, and something is going to happen.

Copyright is even starting to overstep its bounds and artists everywhere are finding themselves restricted instead of encouraged. Yes, they are still encouraged to innovate, but let's face it: Most art improves on other art, rather than being wholly original. Patents are starting to restrict them as well. Imagine if someone patented cel-shading or any other style. With our current system, that could be done.

Things keep getting worse instead of better, and someone -will- step up and do something about it soon.

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." -- Thomas Jefferson, emphasis mine.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

We've been a lot longer than 20 years without 'such a rebellion'.

Why does the state need so much control when it can so easily be voted out within 4 years?

Tom Waits? Is that you?

My name ...is VIGOR!


(Don't get it? Try here after returning your geek ID)

Sounds like we're headed for the eye of a Shiticane here!

I don't know how you still have a positive score for that comment. Have you ever met Paul Vixie? I have. He's a great man with a good sense of humor (see http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Vixie). Now can we just take this quote to mean that exploiting this part of the IPv6 specification has an extremely low barrier to entry as it was intended and move along?

One of your great statesmen once said that if you give up your freedom in exchange for security, you will end up with neither; this is being borne out as we speak.

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

It's not the votes that count. It's who counts the votes.
-Josef Stalin

more of the same.

All the same, it's nice to know someone's election has it's integrity.

And they are proud of it. That's not even counting the fearmongering.

And they are proud of it. That's not even counting the fearmongering.

"Growth for growth's sake is the ideology of the cancer cell." I believe this quote is attributed to the environmentalist Edward Abbey.

Fair enuf. In fact I was wrong, it is often misattributed to James Randi, but he attributes it to an anonymous reader of Swift magazine.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Randi

You're absolutely right, one should always check one's sources.

Start here: http://www.askoxford.com/dictionaries/quotation_di ct/?view=uk
Search for "Voltaire" and see result #1.

You could try this: http://www.bartleby.com/66/40/63040.html
That's an incomplete fragment from a letter, and, although similar in spirit, not the quote in question.

Anything Wiki is a questionable authority, but even so, here's one on quotes, which was your proposed criterion:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire#Misattribute d
More details from the same site:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Evelyn_Beatrice_Hall

I'd be interested to know of any trustworthy sources which attribute the actual quote to Voltaire.

You're absolutely right, one should always check one's sources.

Start here: http://www.askoxford.com/dictionaries/quotation_di ct/?view=uk
Search for "Voltaire" and see result #1.

You could try this: http://www.bartleby.com/66/40/63040.html
That's an incomplete fragment from a letter, and, although similar in spirit, not the quote in question.

Anything Wiki is a questionable authority, but even so, here's one on quotes, which was your proposed criterion:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire#Misattribute d
More details from the same site:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Evelyn_Beatrice_Hall

I'd be interested to know of any trustworthy sources which attribute the actual quote to Voltaire.

The case with QM is somewhat similar. The theory provides excellent results, even these inequality violations are not inconsistent with QM, just strange. Another problem with QM involves renormalization. Apparently to do the math for most of these calculations requires some very goofy steps, but again, the results agree with observations, so this oddity doesn't point the way toward a better solution.

To make a real breakthru though requires a result that is at odds with the predictions of QM. The realm where QM and/or GR break down is in the combined super heavy and super small realms... either atomic activity around black holes and/or primordial black holes. Even if someone were to come up with a competing theory to QM/GR that addressed all the issues, it wouldn't gain wide acceptance until it produced a result that both conflicted with the older theories and was confirmed by real-world evidence. (Note, I'm avoiding the phrase "experimental evidence" because in this case I want to allow the case where results to come from astronomical observations of black holes.)

Finally, I'm struck by a pair of quotes: "Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it's stranger than we CAN imagine." One citation is JBS Haldane and how this is at odds with Einstein "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."

The case with QM is somewhat similar. The theory provides excellent results, even these inequality violations are not inconsistent with QM, just strange. Another problem with QM involves renormalization. Apparently to do the math for most of these calculations requires some very goofy steps, but again, the results agree with observations, so this oddity doesn't point the way toward a better solution.

To make a real breakthru though requires a result that is at odds with the predictions of QM. The realm where QM and/or GR break down is in the combined super heavy and super small realms... either atomic activity around black holes and/or primordial black holes. Even if someone were to come up with a competing theory to QM/GR that addressed all the issues, it wouldn't gain wide acceptance until it produced a result that both conflicted with the older theories and was confirmed by real-world evidence. (Note, I'm avoiding the phrase "experimental evidence" because in this case I want to allow the case where results to come from astronomical observations of black holes.)

Finally, I'm struck by a pair of quotes: "Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it's stranger than we CAN imagine." One citation is JBS Haldane and how this is at odds with Einstein "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."

I was skeptical about the proclaimed end of the Cold War, because that issue will never go away, and no country will willingly accept the loss of status that Russia did. It's hardly surprising that they would want back in the game.

If you accept the notion that to be "great" you must "do as I say," the communists have won your mind. We are hearing from a lot of the same kinds of people in Washington these days. They talk about sacrifice, struggle, security and other unAmerican nonsense.

If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom. - Eisenhower

Two bit tyrants pushing around their broadcasters are anything but great and their country will be anything but respected. Feared and avoided, perhaps, but never respected.

Apparently true.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels#Misat tributed

Theo de Raadt:

"But software which OpenBSD uses and redistributes must be free to all (be they people or companies), for any purpose they wish to use it, including modification, use, peeing on, or even integration into baby mulching machines or atomic bombs to be dropped on Australia."

        * cvs@openbsd.org mailing list, May 29, 2001

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theo_de_Raadt

To follow in that vein:

I do not aim with my eye;
He who aims with his eye has forgotten the face of his father.
I aim with my hand.

I do not shoot with my hand;
He who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I shoot with my mind.

I do not kill with my gun;
He who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.
I kill with my heart.

Steven King, The Dark Tower Series

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Dark_Tower_(serie s)#Vol_III:_The_Waste_Lands

I only have trouble with seeing people quote the "genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration" quote all the time, as if it were some kind of gospel and enlightenment from The Great Wizard himself. When in practice Tesla's quote there pretty much spelled it out that it was only lack of technical skill that made so much perspiration necessary in the first place.

AFAIK, the Edison quote is real (see http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Alva_Edison), and Tesla, Edison's arch rival, said something like "If Edison were smarter, he wouldn't have to perspire so much".

I've worked with some very smart/educated people in my lifetime, and there are two camps here. There are people that are simply brilliant, and brilliant stuff comes from them. There are people that are less than brilliant, but they work their asses off, fail most of the time, but from their shere tenacity, they do come up with great things from time to time.

The thing is that regardless of the origins, coming up with great stuff is great. Edison is simply more popular than Tesla with the masses. Its pretty much common knowledge that Tesla was smarter than Edison, but Edison did come up with some great stuff (or his subordinates did).

My point is that there is room for both brute force innovation and intelligent innovation. Neither is better, because the end result is the same. Actually, in my experience, there is a balance between the two. I've seen some really smart people do seemingly stupid stuff or very brute force/hackish kind of stuff where the method was not pretty, but the end result was great. Results matter, and more often than not, the means of acquiring those results do not matter.

"If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it's worth - and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago." (Fortune, 1996-02-19) - http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steven_Jobs

That's exactly what happens at the moment. I think it's sad, nevertheless, you can't say Mr. Jobs doesn't keep his promises. The iPhone, iPod, and Apple TV are obviously the next great things.

Really, what do you expect someone in that position to want?

I expect them to uphold their oath of office, "do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic." OK, that's not really his oath, it's for an officer and does not mention obeying the president. The president himself is bound by a similar oath. Violating the Bill of Rights is not expected behavior, it's disgraceful behavior and borders on treason.

Once upon an time, Republicans did not act this way.

Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. Their mistaken course stems from false notions of equality, ladies and gentlemen. Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism. .... Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice ... moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

"(talking about when he tells his wife he's going out to buy an envelope) Oh, she says well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know. The moral of the story is, is we're here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don't realize, or they don't care, is we're dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And, we're not supposed to dance at all anymore."

[That's his perspective. I buy lots of stuff on the Internet.]

More Vonnegut quotes here.

Kurt is up in heaven now.

We already know that both the standard model and the general relativity are wrong or at least incomplete.

Not trolling, but the above statement reminds me of the following quotation:
All models are wrong, some are useful.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_E._P._Box/

The question is whether the GPL (any version) is harder to understand than any other licence. If not, then you don't need a lawyer just for the GPL v3.No, you are wrong. All of us who agree to those contracts (EULAs) are crossing our fingers and hoping it all works out or are ignorant of the law. As individual users we do not, so far(we'll see), have much to worry about when we blindly agree to those EULAs.

But as a developer or corporate user, I have much to worry about.

No sir, I like to have my ducks in a row as much as I can and I don't like gambling too much as you suggested.

And to add, considering your comment, I can tell that you're not a lawyer and you're assertions that there isn't a problem should be ignored.

If you are serious about this sort of thing then you should consult an attorney as you suggested. I would not think you necessarily have to retain one, though it's always a good idea to have one on hand for other complexities of running a business. I've never done this myself, but I understand there are attorneys who will go over a contract for you for a few hundred dollars. It's not like there's a shortage of competition.

You could always use the BSD license instead; after all, it has been described as giving complete freedom even if you want to make a baby-mulching machine with the software. Or there's the Bugroff License, which was clearly created to answer this very problem. There used to be a "Penis Bird Troll" on slashdot who created the "Penis Bird License," which was simply "no restrictions on use." The problem with the Bugroff and Penis Bird licenses is that they seem a bit frivolous and their humour might backfire in that on the one hand, especially in the latter case, it might be difficult to market your software to some companies under such a license just because of the name, and on the other hand, it probably would agitate lawyers.

If you're distributing your own original work, you can use whatever license you want. You can even hire someone to write it for you. If you are going to use other people's work you have to learn what the license means, and a lawyer is always a good idea when it comes to these kinds of questions. You do have one additional recourse in that the FSF does employ lawyers and are more than happy to discuss and explain the GPL to you including any implications from the specific application you intend. If getting advice from the people who wrote both the software and the license, the latter with the help of their lawyers, is not enough then you are definitely right about needing a lawyer.

Personally, I would think that before I got too far in running a business I would make sure I either had money to hire one, or, failing that, that I knew one I could get hold of and pay for these sorts of things. I think most people fall into the latter category (individuals and small businesses) and as I said lawyers can be had for piecemeal jobs like that for reasonable prices specifically because they know this is a market where they can thrive. Believe me as scary as the GPL may seem to you in terms of complexity there are far more dangerous hazards to be faced in business, what with liability, contracts, etc. I'd be willing to bet that you're more likely to be sued by an angry customer than you are by the FSF.

Didn't he actually say "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"?

Okay, it's apocryphal, but who cares who said it? Most psychiatrists agree with the sentiment.

"I may be a pretty sad case, but I don't write jokes in base 13!" - Douglas Adams

See Wikipedia and Wikiquote. This quote is also in video form on the DVD release of the Hitchhiker's TV series.

Have we learned nothing from Futurama?

Fry: My God! What if the secret ingredientis people!?
Leela: No, there's already a soda like that. Soylent Cola.
Fry: Oh. How is it?
Leela: It varies from person to person.

Also note what our cannibal friends found out:

Two cannibals are eating a clown. Says one: "Tastes funny"

Yeah, yeah ... I live close enough to DC to experience that issue first hand. However, DC is not a state, and there's a serious potential conflict of interest were DC to be granted statehood - a state that would effectively be the federal government. That'd be bad in a completely different way.

The DC folks are *completely* without representation. The residents seem to have a thing for Marion Barry.

So far as I can see, the guy could take the money and still be using vista.

Dude, don't you know that you don't get the Wow if Vista is not Genuine? Where have you been?

Another way to look at it is as Saint Heinlein did, "Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity." The punishment is in the use.

Very nice quote in your sig, but I thought it was supposed to be "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." Not that I would usually use a wiki as a source, but it's better than nothing: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Waits

No, no hoax. Jack Thompson is that nutty and more. What was quoted here was far from his nuttiest rant.

Thompson's temporary admission to the Alabama bar was revoked by Judge Moore: "Mr. Thompson's actions before this Court suggest that he is unable to conduct himself in a manner befitting practice in this state." Last I heard his Florida license (his home practice) is currently in jeopardy because of his antics.

This moron has a habit of including people's phone numbers in his internet rants. Not only has he posted other people's phone numbers, but this guy was actually so BRAIN DAMAGED as to post his own phone number in the middle of one of his rants. But believe it or not, he even managed to top that one... he posted Judge Moore's fax number in the middle of one of his rants... the judge that threw his ass out of Alabama court. Yes, he is THAT cosmically stupid. A lawyer posting a judge's fax number on the internet in the middle of rant, during a case before that judge. And telling everyone to fax the judge.

Here's a few choice samples from Wikiquote Jack Thompson:

God is in this battle, and I am privileged to be a foot soldier. You all should be concerned, not about me, but about Him.

With enemies like you Pixelantes and like Game Daily Biz, why, I don't need any friends. You honor me with your hatred. I serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and you hate me because the world first hated Him. I follow the Creator of the Universe, and He has taken me to the Gates of Hell, and I kind of like it in here.

You all need to put down the controllers, get a life, and join the Force, thereby leaving the Dark Side behind. Hooah! Praise be to the Lord, Jesus Christ, the author of all things, even of The Florida Freaking Bar.

I'm on the verge, with God's help, of destroying the most out of control video game company on the planet

God and I are going to destroy them.

This guy uses the word "blasphemy"... and not in a metaphorical or humorous sense. He honest-to-god MEANS it when he uses it. He's a fanatic on a modern day crusade. He actually believes that his invisible friend is going to step in and smite down pesky JUDGES who rule against him.

[In reference to Grand Theft Auto:] What the Japanese are doing to our kids is insensitive and racist. The Japanese have for a very long time dumped pornography into this country in a fashion they would not tolerate in their own country. It is another version of Pearl Harbor.

[When pointed out that Grand Theft Auto is made by an American company, Thompson rants:] GTA is a Sony/Take-Two game. It was made by Take-Two exclusively for Sony's Playstation 2. Sony has led the planet in the distribution of mainstream porn. I don't have time to document it for you. As for the offensiveness of the Pearl Harbor comment, it's accurate and it's needed. The Japanese have a contempt for our culture which is patent. There dumping of garbage into our culture is a slow motion version of Pearl Harbor.

[Commenting on the modern attire of young girls:] I went into a Chucky Cheese the other day, and I looked around and thought I was in a whore house for midgets.

This loon declares himself a "culture warrior" in combat against the evil "pixelante" gamers... "a category with the KKK and skinheads". Everything he says is "Hooah!" this and "Hooah!" that about his imagined victories. And he runs around accusing judges of being corrupt and accusing the the ENTIRE FLORIDA BAR of being in a conspiracy against him, and claiming that the Florida bar association itself of being unconstitutional for pursuing disciplinary action against him.

-

Only wimps use tape backup: _real_ men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it ;)
(source)

they've decided that we're all morons and that we'll take what they're feeding us

Why would anyone want to store more than they legally had to? All you have to do is read this.

And if you don't think they are hanging corporations (rightly and wrongly), you are kidding yourself.

Well, after your exposition, would I feel myself much less human? ;-)

--
The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

The difference is merely the number of dollars or the extent of the "favors" reciprocated, required to sell out. The fact that they are a politician sucking the public tit sets the bar of their morals and ethics at a femtometer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtometer#SI_prefixe d_forms_of_metre. Whichever it really was, Shaw/Twain/Churchhill was spot on: "now we are just haggling over the price". http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:George_Bernard_S haw

Thanks! I've saved the WikiQuote page for future reference.

[A Centurion catches Brian writing graffiti on the palace wall.]

Centurion: What's this, then? "Romanes eunt domus"? People called Romanes, they go the house?

Brian: It says, "Romans go home."

Centurion: No, it doesn't! What's the latin for "Roman"? Come on, come on !

Brian: Er, "Romanus"!

Centurion: Goes like?

Brian: Annus.

Centurion: Vocative plural of "Annus" is?

Brian: Er, "Anni"!

Centurion: "Romani"... [writes "Romani" over Brian's graffiti] "Eunt"? What is "eunt"?

Brian: "Go".

Centurion: Conjugate the verb, "to go"!

Brian: Er, "Ire." Er, "eo," "is," "it," "imus," "itis," "eunt."

Centurion: So, "eunt" is... ?

Brian Third person plural present indicative, "they go".

Centurion: But, "Romans go home" is an order. So you must use... ? [twists Brian's ear]

Brian: Aaagh! Imperative!

Centurion: Which is...?

Brian: Aaaaagh! Er, er... "i", "i"!

Centurion: How many Romans?

Brian: Aaaaagh! Plural, plural... er, "ite"!

Centurion: "Ite"... [writes "ite" on wall] "Domus"? Nominative? "Go home" is motion toward, isn't it?

Brian: Dative! [Centurion pulls out gladius and holds it against Brian's throat] Aaagh! Not the dative, not the dative! Er, er... accusative, accusative, "ad domum", sir, "ad domum"!

Centurion: Except "Domus" takes the...?

Brian: The locative, sir!

Centurion: Which is...?

Brian: "Domum"!

Centurion: "Domum"... [writes "Domum" on wall] Um. Understand? Now, write it out a hundred times.

Brian: Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Hail Caesar, sir.

Centurion: Hail Caesar! And if it's not done by sunrise, I'll cut your balls off.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Life_of_Brian

"You are about to be told one more time that you are America's most valuable natural resource. Have you seen what they do to valuable natural resources?! Have you seen a strip mine? Have you seen a clear cut in the forest? Have you seen a polluted river? Don't ever let them call you a valuable natural resource! They're going to strip mine your soul. They're going to clear cut your best thoughts for the sake of profit unless you learn to resist." http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Utah_Phillips

* First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
                    o describing the stages of establishment resistance to a winning strategy of nonviolent activism

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi

Hmm.. we've almost gotten to step 3 in 16 years... step 4 complete by 2013?

DON'T confuse your hemlocks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemlock

The "tree-sap" hemlock would probably be a member of genus Tsuga. It Is is a large conniferous tree.

Poison hemlock is a member of genus Conium. It is a smallish shrub, considered to resemble fennel or parsley.

When crushed, the two are said to have similar odors, which is stated to be the reason for the similarity of name.

"I drank WHAT?!?!"http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Socrates

Last but not least, Wikipedia the doll!
*squeezes doll* - "May the Knowledge be with you!"

[to those who are not aware, parent was paraphrasing a quote from the movie Spaceballs, you can find the relevant quote here, how nobody recognized the humor (wake up mods, toilet paper??) and modded parent insightful was beyond me]

>Reminds me of what someone said in a movie: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."

Darth Vader - The Empire Strikes Back

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Episode_V:_ The_Empire_Strikes_Back