Slashback: Smallness, Blackouts, South Australia

Slashback is back this evening with more on censorship down under, games that you'll brag to your grandchildren you were glad to be beaten with a hot iron while playing, and more. Enjoy with care.

"Luxury!" DagBot writes: "TW2002 is still alive and can also be played as TCPIP telnet No BBS need to log into. Its called TWGS (Trade Wars Game Server). There is Still TW2002 communities going strong and I run a TWGS server now and have about 40 regular players playing. There is no large time-wasting BBS to log into, but its quick and easy to get into a game and get back to the good old days where you had to know how to read and have quick fingers to play.

There are also 2 TW2002 helpers that will run right out of the box with full telnet and ANSI support along with user-edited and scripts. Both are great programs Attac uses REXX scripts and Swath uses a Java based script for user defined scripts. Both will get you up and playing in a few minutes thinking about the good old days. My TW2002 stand alone server can be found [here] login, play, get a feel for the good old days."

Until everyone has one, it will keep being submitted, and maybe even then. azephrahel writes: "I am sure almost all of Slashdot's readers have drooled over the possibilities that many of the pc-on-a-stick products now offer. You can buy the uCsimm for $300, the matchbox PC for only $1,495, from emj you can get a 386 on a stick for $130 but you have to fit all your os & code & drivers into .9 Megs. Still that is probably the most reasonable, and made by Jumptech. They make fun toys, but there hard to buy peicemeal at a decent price.

Anyway after all that rambling, I just found this companies site, there called i-Button. They sell java computers called TINI, in a 72 pin simm format, and little button shaped devices called i-buttons (yes the thing in the java ring featured on slashdot in March) The important part, they sell peicemeal, reasonably. I just blew $120 bucks on their site and ended up with a java computer on a stick (TINI, complete with an ethernet controller onboard), a javabutton, a tempterature probe, and a project board to hook up and play with these toys on.
I figured that a few others here would like to hear they can get these toys without selling a spleen."

All these things have been mentioned on Slashdot before, but it looks like the era of ubiquitous little tiny parts has arrived, and at a price level sustainable by occasional weekend medical experiments, too.

Fraidja can't see that w'out p'mission, bub. For those of you unhappy with the apparent moves toward censorship in South Australia, Danny Yee writes: "Electronic Frontiers Australia has put online analysis of the South Australian legislation and suggestions for action."

Comments

Embedded Systems for fun and profit.

[volsung]

The TINI and friends are really for hobbyists and small-scale embedded systems manufacturers. You don't use these things like personal computers or handhelds. You use them to control things like robots, sprinkler systems, or other gizmos you want to operate, attach to the internet (built-in ethernet), or control in other ways.

Unless electronics and programming make you happy, or you work for someone making webcams, sensors that attach to ethernet, etc., you won't care much.

Re:Censorship is a CULTURAL not Political issue.

[Silver A]

So I think we can see that we need to be sensitive to other cultures before we go on screaming about censorship. What would be called censorship in the USA would be viewed as responsible government in many countries, especially in Europe, the Middle East, and Singapore/China.

The Declaration of Independence says:

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights...

Notice that it doesn't say "all Americans" - our heritage considers these rights universal. Australians, or Arabs, or Chinese, are just as entitled to the rights we enjoy as Americans are.

By saying that censorship may be one part of responsible government, you're saying that those people being "responsibly governed" are somehow less worthy than Americans. Or you believe that censorship in America may also be a part of "responsible government" here. Because you're in the U.S., you're free to believe either, or both, of those positions, but I'm free to say you're wrong.

Re:Censorship is a CULTURAL not Political issue.

[Mr. Slippery]

So I think we can see that we need to be sensitive to other cultures before we go on screaming about censorship.

Riiiiight. I guess we shouldn't condem slavery, religious intolerance, or ethnic cleansing in other nations either. After all, their ways are different from our own.

Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/

Dallas Semiconductor

[technos]

Dallas has been making the buttons and the TINI for a few ywars now; I remember reading about the TINI in some trash Java mag in Sep 1999, and I know the i-Button has been in production since early 1996 cuz I've had one on my key ring since then..

Re:Censorship is a CULTURAL not Political issue.

[raju1kabir]

Saudi Arabia beleive it or not banned 'Baywatch' because it was thought it would corrupt their youth.

I believe Batwatch would corrupt almost anyone.

But nevermind. Some Saudi censorship fun:

• The "Beetle Bailey" comic strip has a character - the General's secretary - who characteristically wears short dresses. In the Riyadh English-language newspaper, she shows up with a long-sleeve, full-length black muu-muu (crudely hand-drawn onto the strip prior to printing)
• If a crossword puzzle answer is something shocking like "wine" or "beer", the clue is deleted from the puzzle. Of course, this leaves an obvious gap which prompts everyone to rush to solve the clues around it so they can figure out what the offensive word was.
• (My personal favorite) On a dopey British kids' game show which was shown daily, the prize one day was a trip to Finland; specifically, Lapland. The announcer said, "And you might even meet --BLEEP--!". The name bleeped out, of course, was Santa Claus.

So count your lucky stars, Adelaideans: It could be a lot worse.

As for the Baywatch story, I suspect that's apocryphal or at best misleading. Nothing even close to Baywatch makes it on TV. They wouldn't even show My Three Sons (the early ones, before Mrs. Pfeiffer got all trampy). It's highly unlikely that anyone would have wasted time trying to get that particular show on.

Culture is no excuse

[fhwang]

This reminds me of an article written after the Tiananmen Square massacre. Caspar Weinberger was trying to excuse the actions of Deng Xiaopeng by pointing out that Deng's son had been paralyzed during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960's, so Deng had a good excuse to be afraid of change, and to overreact. Weinberger was trying to excuse Deng's political actions ("Let's run over college students with tanks") by pointing out his cultural history ("Don't judge him; those Chinese folks have been through some fucked-up shit"). And numerous other commentators have tried to excuse China's appalling human rights record by pointing to its culture. That may explain it, but it doesn't excuse it. There were Chinese dissidents who were shot in the head after Tiananmen, and then their families were billed for the cost of the bullet -- but those dissidents are somehow less Chinese than the cadres in power? Sheesh.

On a more personal note, I'm of South Korean descent, and I occasionally hear cultural explanations for South Korea's poor practices of democracy. (Corruption, repression of the press, etc., etc.) I often find those excuses condescending -- you think just because I was born in a different country that I can't understand the Bill of Rights? I'd rather you hate the oppressive leadership in South Korea along with me.