Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Injunction, Waivers, Black Hole
Meanwhile, kids, make sure to join the Marines! An unnamed correspondent writes: "An update on a slashdot article from Oct 14: The video game industry has obtained a stay from the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. According to the article, "the city on Wednesday was ordered to hold off enforcement, temporarily at least, of its ordinance against children under 18 using violent or sexually explicit coin-operated video games." The CNN article can be found here."
Those whom the gods would destroy ... Sacrifice writes: "The Times tells the whimsical story of an inventor too overconfident in the difficulty of a puzzle he estimated would take a genius four years of work to complete; three possible solutions are being reviewed after only 16 months, and royalties aren't enough to cover the half million pounds he pledged, so has put his 67 room mansion up for sale to make good on his pledge (Lloyd's will pony up the other half)."
.. then only criminals will play emulated videogames. Ultra-protective reader FortKnox writes: "Although we've all heard about retro-gaming emulators and copyrights, this BBC article mentions a few of the copyright holder's that waived their copyrights to emulators. Its good to finally see some of these copyrights being waived to let us retro-gamers get our fix."
quintillions and jazillions (with inflation) general_re writes: "Carl Sagan's groundbreaking series "Cosmos" is finally available on VHS/DVD after many years. Although it isn't scheduled to ship until sometime next month, there's a reasonable discount for pre-orders. Many of you probably remember how awesome this series was (I first saw it when I was 9, and still remember it), and for those of you who haven't seen it, go see it. One caveat: after hunting around Project Voyager and carlsagan.com, nobody seems to be offering an official Carl Sagan commemorative bong. ;)"
Take that, evil wicked dirty spammer scumbags! And that! And that! rhea writes: "As an update to this article, Harris dropped the lawsuit they brought against MAPS for putting them on the RBL. Read the final word from MAPS. Paul Vixie: 1; Spammers: 0." The close of that "final word" is pretty biting:
In the final analysis, it would seem that the only thing which Harris has accomplished was getting one, possibly two ISPs (depending on AOL) out of more than a dozen ISP defendants to start accepting their email traffic, something which they could quite possibly have done without the expense and complication of filing a lawsuit.Not that there's any truly good answer to spam, but MAPS represents about the sanest approach I've ever seen -- it's voluntary, it's factual, and it makes no bones about either one of those. Congratulations, Paul. Keep up the good work.And, oh yes, they helped to prove MAPS' position that it is up to each individual subscriber to the RBL to decide for themselves whose email they will accept, and whose they will reject.
Harris remains on the RBL.
In another spammer story worthy of a slashback mention, the same lawyer who represented Earthlink against Sanford Wallace has "obtained the broadest permanent injunction ever issued" against a spammer, in a court case in Georgia. In this case, if the spammer spams again, he could face jail time. Awright!!!
--
Signal Eleven?
Perhaps... and it isn't me. 575's male!
Tell me, when was the last time you nearly starved to death?
When I went without work for the summer. No cash, little food, lost 1/5th of my body weight. Yeah, food is good, but its NOT the government's responsibility to fatten me up! I'd really rather have free speech, since I can earn money (and thus food), but how in the hell can one earn freedom? Ooops, nevermind, already know the answer to that one... send some lobbyists to washington heh...
As sick and insensitive as this is going to sound, I think the US is already too much of a welfare state, ESPECIALLY considering that the unemployment rate is so low (c'mon now, its not like people are starving because there is no place to get a job). It'd be different if we were in the middle of a depression or something, but in that case, the Gov't couldn't afford to feed everyone that NEEDED to be fed. So, our nice welfare state only works when we shouldn't need it.
Course, I wouldn't go so far to say that the Gov't should increase technology development at the expense of social services (thats just dumb), but on the other hand, technology creates jobs.
Welfare should be supplied to those completely unable to earn an income for theirselves (i.e. mentally handicapped or otherwise severely disabled).
I would think this would save the gov't enough money so they could do some things a bit more beneficial to the country as a whole... like improving education, and providing a way for people to get out of those overpopulated urban areas... I just can't understand why it is the government would rather send welfare checks to people in the ghetto, instead of helping them get the hell away from the drugs and gangs.
What could possibly hurt the security of the American people more than giving our own government the ability to hide its
For those people who think MAPS & friends abuse their power this stinks.
I know for a fact that some of these groups do network scans (which they often claim they do not do); since they do most of the scans via private network accounts they don't get caught in log files. I also know that regardless of the results of network scans that they will list servers which they think MIGHT exist but which they cannot test. (If they cannot test it from random net account it should be inaccessable to anybody wanting to use it for a relay, right? Doesn't matter. They will ban it anyway.)
Organizations playing god don't deserve to be on the internet.
Here's an interesting quote from the website about the DVD edition:
Very cool. Also note that the soundtrack is avaiable on a 2 CD set as well. It has Vangelis's awesome score, along with all the bits of incidental music used throughout the series. Damn, I'm going to order me a copy right now!
Free Hans!
Usually the copyright problems don't come from the games themselves, but from the ROM images. For example you can download Elite but not the BBC Micro MOS and Basic ROMs needed to play it.
Amstrad behaved very well here - many years ago they released the Spectrum ROM code into the public domain, or at least allowed people to use it. But Acorn (the makers of the BBC Micro) kept a tight grip on the ROMs from 1981. Some say this was because the operating system on their 32-bit Archimedes machines (Arthur, which later became RISC OS) was originally a straight port of the BBC Micro's operating system, and had many features in common. But that's a pretty poor reason to stop people using the original 8-bit code for a machine which hasn't been sold since 1986.
Acorn kept this up until their eventual demise a couple of years ago. I don't know who inherited the copyright to the BBC ROMs - probably RISC OS Limited (who almost develop newer versions of RISC OS) or Pace Micro Technology (who make set-top boxes). They could do the world a favour, and themselves no harm, by letting emulator users run the original ROM images.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Compared to cancer, diabetes, the plague and malaria, AIDS is an outbreak that mankind should be grateful for due to its limited means of transmission
Hmmm.. I've had diabetes for 20 years and I've not yet given it to anyone else. I didn't know cancer was contagious either. Where did you get this one from?
MAPS didn't really win because there was no precedent set.
This battle is over, but there could be more. What's to stop these companies from doing this repeatedly until MAPS is broke? Nothing.
I'm happy MAPS won, but this won't go away until it's settled.
...cos the one in the original article (cnn) isnt up...
http://www.2think.org/carlsagan.shtml
Can I tell you what the kids in my neighborhood are going to be up to behind a curtain on a Friday night?
Who's the moro.... genius, who came up with this?
"Strip-quake" will be played by drunken, half-naked teens in malls all over town...
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
What's both interesting and saddening is that it seems like AIDS has been dealt with as if it's a political issue, not a disease that is a "problem for everyone."
I totally disagree - but then I actually know someone who has HIV as a result of a blood transfusion before there was adequate testing (and yes, the person in question is still alive after 15 years). And by the way - people are infected by HIV, they develop AIDS as the later symptoms.
Consider, if a form of smallpox returned, which had a relatively slow spread rate, but was still deadly. How would it be dealt with? Would doctors be required to not inform those in contact with the infected that they might be at risk. Would we allow them to donate blood, even though there was a checkbox indicating they were sick and the blood shouldn't be processed (mislabeling happens)? Would it be politicized rather than treated as a disease, with political correctness taking priority over public health?
I hope this is just your lack of knowledge about the transmission of HIV. If you work or live with someone with HIV you are at practically no risk during normal day to day activities. Shaking hands with this person will NOT infect you. Neither is kissing them likely to infect you - saliva does not carry the virus in any measurable levels. Only when there is blood-level contact between the HIV carrier and someone else is there any likelihood of transmission. Even in full sexual acts, the chance of transmission is only 40%. This differs sharply from the analogy you raise with Smallpox, which was both shorter in term and more easily transmitted. So I feel your argument comes over as being poorly informed.
Having said that, it is one thing to know all this stuff. It is quite another to deal with it in an ordinary day-to-day situation and actually treat the HIV-sufferer as a normal, healthy person, which until AIDS develops they are. I have the greatest respect for the carers, nurses and doctors who help people with HIV continue to live normal lives. I also take my hat off to the researchers who have managed to find drugs which have lifted the 10-year death sentence that HIV used to imply.
I agree with the list of games in this thread (Blaster Master, Mega Man, Super Mario Bros. (1 and 3), the Zeldas (1 and 2), Contra, Metroid.
Now I have a few games to add:
Nintendo was the high point of console gaming (and damn close to the high point of all of digital gaming). The only thing I like nowadays is GT2 for Playstation, which is a truly awesome game. But it doesn't come close to my NES. Oh that I were twelve with my Nintendo again! We're goin' all the way, Ryu, all the way...
Thank you.
I do not belong in the spam.redirect.de domain.
I don't think its necessarily hypocritical. If you think about it, some kind of control or filtering is necessary. The problem most people have with filtering is that the decision of what is filtered is a closed process. People aren't allowed to provide input or to know what is being censored. If I understand it correctly, MAPS allows you to see what is blocked and it at least allows people more input than a more closed proprietary product does.
Also, the fact that the decision to use it is up to the ISP is at least better than everyone being forced to use a closed system. Individual users have a larger voice with their respective ISPs than they would with a large corporation or with the Federal government. The truth is, there probably isn't a perfect solution, but this is the best I've seen so far.
Check out AbiWord.
As for emulation, the old Sinclair Spectrum is perfectly legally emulable: Amstrad (holder of they copyright of the ROM) said basically "go ahead and use it, so long as you don't do it commercially". There is hope out there for retro games.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
No, it is not. Though it might seem a workable (I won't say good) idea on the surface, it's scary to think of the governmental mechanisms that need be in place for such a policy to be implimented with adequate swiftness and thoroughness. Any government that could elimate aids victims swiftly enough to stop the spread of the disease could just as easily eliminate dissentors swiftly enough to stop the spread of free thought.
it's biologically impossible for a gay couple to produce children.
Wrong. Gay men can produce children just as well as any other men; all they need is a cooperative woman to be the mother. It's even easier for lesbians, who require only sperm, which is readily available. And on top of it all, homosexuals tend to make excellent parents.
(Ok - first, I really not looking for a flamewar here; I'm not trolling.)
"HIV/AIDS is a problem for everyone, not just homosexuals."
What's both interesting and saddening is that it seems like AIDS has been dealt with as if it's a political issue, not a disease that is a "problem for everyone."
Consider, if a form of smallpox returned, which had a relatively slow spread rate, but was still deadly. How would it be dealt with? Would doctors be required to not inform those in contact with the infected that they might be at risk. Would we allow them to donate blood, even though there was a checkbox indicating they were sick and the blood shouldn't be processed (mislabeling happens)? Would it be politicized rather than treated as a disease, with political correctness taking priority over public health?
I intend no insult or accusation to someone with such a disease. I wouldn't wish it upon anyone; I don't think anyone who has AIDS 'deserves' it as some have horribly said. Nor do I think quarantines are the answer, nor making them social outcasts. But I think AIDS should be handled as a disease and not as a political/minority-rights/voting issue.
As always, this is just my perception from events over the past decade, talking with doctors, and listening to the voices in my head.
-----
D. Fischer
ShoutingMan.com
I don't like SPAM, but when an ISP chooses to use MAPS RBL, they're censoring your email for you. Perhaps that's what you want, perhaps that's not what you want. But you never get the choice. Many ISPs that use MAPS RBL never state publically that they do.
/. clamors for one form of censorware, but fights against another, the forced censorship of internet connections in public schools and libraries, which is also a decision which is made without the input of the user, and which also supposedly protects the user from something which is bad for them.
It is rather hypocritical that
What disturbs me most about MAPS RBL is the small number of people that make a decision to add a mail server to it, and the same small number that can make the decision to remove it in the future or retain it. If the government were doing this, there would be an outcry, but when a private company does it, it's fine.
Bottom Line: MAPS RBL is not voluntary for the user, just for the ISP.
--
Most people would disagree with you.
DNA just wants to be free...
The latter post which you replied to is from A-r-m-e Marie, not A-n-n-e Marie who posted the multi-column story. Look again.
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
FF6 is good, but no one seems to remember FF4 (or 2 here in the US). The music in FF4 is every bit as masterful as FF6, and the storyline runs circles around almost any other game I can think of... it's cosmic and personal at the same time, and fascinating, to boot. Yeah, the graphics are cheesy compared to the later games, but some of the effects (especially towards the end) are incredible, considering the game came out in (I believe) 93 or 94.
Final Fantasy 4 is one of 2 games that has actually brought tears to my eyes.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
ORBS is not a part of MAPS. ORBS does network scans. MAPS does not.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
If your ISP defends your mailbox using the RBL, and you don't like it, get your email through a different service. This is the Internet; stop acting so helpless.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
It is my considered medical opinion that every schoolchild should be shown the last episode of Cosmos. It's over a decade since I first saw it, and I still get those goosebumps when I think about it.
However...
The miserable, well-poisoning donkey blowers are only making the DVD available (as far as I can see) to denizens of the US. What about us humble Irishmen? How do we get it? DVD express (usually so reliable) never heard of it. Nor did DVD empire.
If any kind soul knows of a site that'll sell it to foreigners, I'd appreciate a note.
Y'know, when this happened with the boxed set of Urusei Yatsura movies, I was pissed off. But denying Cosmos to the Rest of The World isn't just annoying, it's positively criminal.
This whole attitude that the rich are entitled to something because they're rich strikes me as arrogant in the extreme. You know why the richest 10% pay 90% of all taxes? Because the richest 1% has 99% of the money. And, if my calculations are correct, that leaves the rest of us paying, proportionately, oh, ten times as much in taxes.
Wraithmaster
www.wraithmaster.com -- Chicken soup for the spleen.
www.wraithmaster.com -- Chicken soup for the spleen.
"Naaarf!" --Pinky
How about The Mechanical Universe? If you missed it the first time around, Real-player clips are available here. If nothing else, look for the early-eighties animation; stay for the fun of it.
Or how about Powers of Ten? (Both the rough sketch, with the cool relativity clock, and the final in color, with SEM photos, instead of drawings, are great.)
For a change, consider Why Man Creates. This thing did win the Academy, and it deserved it. Darned funny, trenchant, moving, and scary.
If you want to go further back, how about all the Bell Science films, including Hemo the Magnificent. Darned patronizing in places, but they got many of us kidniks started in science.
And then there's the film that got away... My husband remembers the one he saw at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1978 or 1979. His pupils still dilate as he laughs about the use of student volunteers to model ADP/ATP cycles, complete with CO2 fire extinguishers to show energy being given off. Titles gratefully accepted.
the playing of "classic games" is a crime
That's not quite what they meant, of course, but the fact is that many companies would like to make it a crime to play these games (even if you actually legally own them. See all the complaining about emulators, even if you're using it for your own games.) It's this part that really annoys me about the attitude of the game companies ... they want you to buy their new (and generally not very good) games so badly that they want to remove the chance to play these older games. A video game is a work of art, and it seems like a shame that they would effectively destroy them because they're incapable of otherwise turning a profit.
I don't think that, legally, we'll be able to make any ground on this issue ... at least, until somebody manages to get copyright law reverted to a somewhat sane state ... but until then, I hope that the little 'rebellion' keeps going strong.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Lieberman, Gore, Cheney or Bush.
I just made a liar out of Timothy.
One of the many things I hate. thingsihate.org
But here it seems more like
Slashdot: 0; Spammers 9
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
You can use my RBL tester. Send email to nelson-rbl-test@crynwr.com. See http://crynwr.com/spam/ for more information. As I said in another post, "This is the Internet; stop acting so helpless."
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
I think the idea of bringing the Internet to countries with 4% literacy rates is sketchy at best. Electricity, water, roads, sufficient food supply & distribution of same, and universal public education in the 3 R's would all be a better start.
OTOH, the 'Net can be a valuable tool for revolutionaries, and a great way to exchange information under the noses of the oppressive & greed-headed regimes that tend to lead countries to third-worldness to begin with.
Anyway, I guess I think it couldn't hurt, it might help, but there are other things that might help more.
OK,
- B
http://www.bradheintz.com/
- updated
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are not necessarily my own, as I've not yet had my medication today.
Wraithmaster
www.wraithmaster.com -- Chicken soup for the spleen.
www.wraithmaster.com -- Chicken soup for the spleen.
"Naaarf!" --Pinky
From the article: "Loss adjusters Gaebel, Watkins & Taylor of London, are validating a possible winning entry."
From the prev. poster: "load of plastic polygons that you have to fit into a hexagon shape. All the pieces are the same plain featureless green."
Ahh... At first I was wondering why 'validation' was more complicated than comparing allegedly complete puzzle to boxtop. I mean, I know six-year olds that can do that.
Of course, if all the pieces are the same color, and the pieces are put together, then what more is there for the 'validators' to do than look at it and say, "Yup. That thar puzzle is plumb put together." -- no need to even look at the boxtop, unless you *really* wanted to make sure that it is supposed to be solid green.
:)
-----
D. Fischer
ShoutingMan.com
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-- Anne Marie
You're getting much better at this. Your new format is a bit more pleasant to the eye.
Anyone who appreciates such gestures should voice their support. Send mail thanking Ian Bell, and check out his web site. Do the same for Jeff Minter by following the links above. And hunt down these guys' circa-1980-hot-shot-game-programmer peers, show some love and relive the old days of 8-bit.
If you're not wasted, the day is.
If you're not wasted, the day is.
Well you probably would've had a better chance of getting that story through if you had mentioned one of the magic words. Namely, "Linux", since no there are no representatives for Linux, GNU, FSF, OSS, or anything of that ilk at that "Digital Dividends" conference. (They did send an invitation to RedHat who declined.)
/. would be redundant. And I'm apt to agree with them.
But then, Linux Weekly News has been covering it pretty well. Maybe the boys here figure that putting it on
Oh, and when I said "conference" previously, I meant "bending-over-and-kissing-our-own-asses".
Any sufficiently advanced civilization is indistinguishable from Gods.
I'm surely no lawyer, but i'm pretty sure that the copyright is only to reserve the right for enough time to make profits off of the copyrighted noun. once the copyright holder has stopped attempting to make profits on the object, he or she has, in effect, relenquished hold on the 'right to copy.'
also, the copyright is to promote something like scientific development, invention, and innovation. its been a while since ive read the law its self. but once the copyright is stifling creativity and development, or even our simple enjoyment, by preventing others from using (example) these emulators and ROMs, then the copyright is working at cross purposes.
when you stop using your copy right, then it shouldn't still exist. keeping others from using it, and yet not using it your self, i can't think of anything to compare it to other than greediness. if a certain company gives up on selling or servicing a product, then the company does not deserve the right to claim it. if they want to claim it, then they should have a reason for maintaining the copyright (such as selling me my favorite 8-bit nintendo with complete mario brothers game set) .
just a few pennies i had kicking around.
The puzzle developed by Christopher Monckton is The Eternity Puzzle. (Also check out this unoffical page). Interestingly enough, there was a distributed computing project designed to solve the puzzle, but the effort was suspended after the threat of legal action. And the game in question was boycotted after Monckton urged that the entire population of the United States and Britain should be compulsorily tested for HIV, and that everyone with the virus should be forcibly quarantined for life.
I loved it. Sagan did such a good job of illuminating the wonders of science and our world. The whole series is organized wonderfully, and Sagan himself is so enthusiastic about the subject matter..
If you haven't seen it, snatch up a copy when it comes out. Geez I get goosebumps just thinking about it... SHows how geeky i am..