Slashback: Protest, Similarities, Orbit

Slashback items tonight on India's satellite launch, a bi-coastal EFF-organized protest (yes, will involve leaving your cubicle, basement, silo, remote farm, etc.), Apple not falling far from the tree, and the death of Indrema. Read on below :)

Show your truuuuueee colors ... h0mee writes: "Howdy! This has already been posted on slashdot, but we still need more volunteers showing up at the protests. This protest is being organized by the EFF against federally mandated censorware in schools and libraries. The protests are occuring on this friday in the SF Bay Area and the NYC areas. I'd like to remind slashdot readers on the completely cynical side that even small groups of protestors showing up will have big impacts, as the FCC will be caught completely off guard by hordes of angry geeks showing up- this protest can make a difference! Please check out the EFF's protest page on this for more info for coordination and ridesharing, or this rant on craigslist for SF bay locals. Show your geek pride, and help us distribute Clue to the FCC!"

Hey, stop looking at me! And no feeling, either! In response to CmdrTaco's recent post about Apple moving yet again to block the makers of Apple-reminscent themes, WillAdams writes:h "The response, and the original letter are up at http://www.macthemes.org.

They'd like a lawyer..."

Sounds fair. Soon lawyers defending Open Source will take over as the heros of the software world. "Didn't there used to be programmers, too, dad?"

Up in the air, Junior Birdman w00ly_mammoth writes: "After an aborted attempt, India has launched a satellite rocket. Signals from it were picked up in Canada. The Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, or GSLV-D1, is capable of giving the nation communication and military capabilities, according to western analysts. The US has been concerned about this development for a while. This could also rattle the aerospace industry, since it marks an entry into the lucrative satellite launch market."

(Invent your own aphorism involving ashes, phoenixes and plant life.) impaler writes: "Games Mania has a story with three people's views on the death of indrema. They interview Mark Collins (author of Linux Game Programming), Clinton Ebadi (me / that lamer that does nothing useful), and Steve Baker (of TuxKart fame). All three offer different opinions on why indrema went down."

Speaking of games, ryants writes: "OpenGL.org is reporting that NVidia's GeForce3 meets or beats the functionality available in DX8 via OpenGL extensions. This bodes well for Linux gaming." Take your grains of salt, head out back, and play some TuxKart;)

Comments

Re:India Launch

[inburito]

And even if India and China both put a man on moon the american public is going to care because? I doubt that even a mars mission from would gather that much interest. There is no cold war going on and people are more concerned about their standard of living here on earth.

Neither one of those countries can really threaten (no a silly plane with 24 men doesn't count) the u.s. aside doomsday scenarios and nobody really wins at those..

Space race was a product of cold war that is long gone and forgotten along with nationalism.. It's all about the money nowadays.. Wish it weren't, though..

Re:censor ware in schools

[CA']['O]

Assuming that you go to a high school, I think that students have much better things to do with thier time in school than to look up porn. I go to a high school with 500 of the most immature people i have ever known. However, I would say that out "Acceptable Use Policy" is violated no more than 2 or 3 times a week, and most of the time it is not having to do with porn. We have no internet blocking software and it does not seem to be a problem. I think your guess of about half the school looking up porn is groundless and way off. My theory: students can easily look up porn at home in their own privacy. The risk of looking it up in a building crawling with authority figures just isnt worth it. Of course, for a few the risk IS the fun, but those types of students are looking for approval from their friends (i.e. class clowns) and are not looking up porn because of other reasons. I support restricting access to explicit sites, but not at the price that it comes at right now. I say keep internet blocking software out of schools until the software actually does what it is supposed to do.

Maybe the problem is lack of support

[issachar]

need more volunteers showing up at the protests. This protest is being organized by the EFF against federally mandated censorware in schools and libraries

Maybe, just MAYBE, there isn't actually widespread opposition to censorware in schools & libraries. I for one am not against some form of censorship in schools. These are schools for crying out loud. There are some things that should be blocked out of schools.

Libraries are a different issue, but I find myself unable to support protests because my moderate stance in unwelcome with the EFF.

And I am NOT saying that censoreware is perfect. It's obvious that it's not, but the solution is even more obvious. Build better censoreware with open lists of what is blacklisted.

Moderators: What I've said may be unpopular, but do not mark me down as a troll or flamebait because I'm serious and this is a legitimate point of view.

Re:Maybe the problem is lack of support

[MadCow42]

"But Mommy, there WAS no such thing as the Second World War... I searched and searched on the Internet at school, and there was nothing!"

Censorware in theory has its applications, but those with the power to influence what other people see, hear, and read are all too likely to abuse that power. Just look at the track record of current Censorware companies, blocking sites that oppose them, competitors sites, and the like.

My example above is a little extreme, but who's to say that some programmer or marketing guy at "Censorware R US" won't have a personal bias or vendetta that gets slipped in?

There's NO excuse to rely on Censorware... the best way to ensure that kids don't end up seeing Porn is to SUPERVISE THEM. The Internet is quickly replacing television as the babysitter of the new millenium.

Maybe I just have Hoof-in-mouth disease, but the thought of censoring ANYTHING, for noble reasons or not, makes me sick.

MadCow.

India in Space?

[TGK]

What do they need long range missiles for? Pakistan's not THAT far away!

This has been another useless post from....

Re:India Launch

[Guppy06]

"And even if India and China both put a man on moon the american public is going to care because?"

Because after thirty years, landing on the moon has become an utterly American piece of history. It is a sign of national identity to be able to say "We've done what nobody else has done before or since."

Because as can be witnessed by that "silly plane" you mentioned, America loves to hero-worship. Niel Armstrong and the other 11 men that landed on the moon during the Apollo program are probably the most idolized Americans of the 20th Century, if not American history.

And, finally, because Americans love memorials. the USS Arizona still sits on the bottom of Pearl Harbor, even though it was sunk almost 60 years ago. Gettysburg has so many monuments that it wasn't feasable to shoot the movie there. The concept of footprints that will be on the surface of the moon for thousands of years appeals to us, and the idea of the Chinese or anybody else possibly messing that up disgusts us.

Mark my words: Within a year of a non-American setting foot on the Moon, the US will launch a mission to Mars.

Re:India Launch

[Guppy06]

"I recall that over 30% of americans doubt that man ever landed on moon."

I seem to be in the dark. Where does that number come from?

"I'm certainly one of those who think that it would have been highly unlikely with 1960's technology."

I take it you've never seen a Saturn V, or even an F-1 engine. :)

"Now yes, then unlikely. "

I find it amusing that you make that distinction, since "modern" US (manned) space flight capabilities is built on 70's technology. Enterprise and Columbia are not much younger than I am. Though I suppose it's more advanced than the Soyuz capsules the Russians have been using since, what, the 60's?

"It is not so much that you wen't to moon, but that you beat your nemesis while doing it. "

Few people remember that there was a lot of competition between various parties to be the first to fly non-stop over the Atlantic. The only thing important in the history books now, though, is that Lindbergh (sp?) was the first, not that he beat a whole mess of others (especially European efforts) in the process. As far as most students are concerned, good ol' Chuck woke up one morning and said "I think I'll fly over the Atlantic today..."

Of course, they also fail to remember that he was an outspoken proponent of the Nazis, but that's something altogether different.

Enemies come and go. But the fact that we're now buddy-buddy with the UK and Canada doesn't mean that monuments like USS Constitution or Ft. McHenry have any less meaning as far as national identity are concerned.

"No nemesis, no true nationalism"

Perhaps you failed to notice all those yellow ribbons they had in Washington State a few days ago, or all the pro-US flamebait in that one recent /. editorial about the failure of hyperreality.

"Corporatism and stock markest yes"

Those concepts don't have faces to carve into mountains or places with hourly tours. And if you can't erect large chunks of marble somewhere, what's the fun in that?

"Having established this status some puny asian"

*cough* 1/5th world's population *cough* 1/2 our GDP and 1/20 of the world's *cough* nuclear weapons *cough*

"U.s. still rules and money matters"

Money may provide the illusion of power to those that have it, but buying yes-men isn't true power. Power is the ability to inspire people, to sway their emotions. Napoleon's and Hitler's troops didn't take over Europe because they were the best-paid troops, but because they believed in what they were fighting for and were inspired by their leaders. The US lost Vietnam not because the North Vietnamese were richer, but because they were more inspired.

Let me let you in on a little secret: When Sputnik I was launched, the US was still enjoying the post-war economic boom. There was a nuclear missile gap with the Soviets heavily in favor of the US. Hell, we probably could've gotten away with a first strike at that point. The Soviets were a distant #2 by all respects. However, the Soviets were the ones who put a glorified basketball into space. By showing their technological and economic expertise (nevermind that it was behind America's), they were able to both frighten the West and inspire other communist movements.

THAT'S power.

If the Chinese land on the Moon, there will be a lot of letters to Congress saying "How come they can do it but we can't?" Having multi-gigahertz PCs and The Matrix on DVD is poor consolation for the ability to point to something that grand and say "We did that."

Besides, what good is having all this money if we don't spend it?