Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Spolsky, Mandrake, Geography
Update: not everyone agrees on everything. ipoverscsi writes: "SoftwareMarketSolution has a followup interview with Joel Spolsky comprised mainly of rebuttals from the comments section of an older article on Slashdot. A quote I found interesting regarding re-writing software: 'Don't even talk to me about spending money replacing something that works. The only question that is relevant is -- what does it cost to fix it if it doesn't work?'"
'First' seems to be relative. MattJ writes: "A week or two ago, Gavni Menzies' theory about Chinese explorations preceding Columbus were mentioned on Slashdot. He has now made his presentation to the Royal Geographical Society. According to MSNBC, the response from historians who saw it was somewhat muted. They say they need to wait for his book to come out to treat the theory fairly, but right now it looks like a tower of suppositions."
"Or, to vote for 'irresponsible disclosure,' please press No ...". juliao writes: "The IETF has dropped the draft proposal for responsible disclosure of bugs."
Fax early and often. jd142 writes: "A follow up to Friday's CBDTPA story. Electronic petitions and e-mail are unlikely to sway a Senator. Dead trees do. Luckily you can easily have a message faxed to your Senators. Letters are good too, so send both. This is a case where the more paper we can swamp them with, the better chance we have of killing this. And take the time to personalize your faxes and letters."
A matter of phrasing? I mentioned that StarOffice 6.0 was due for retail release in April; Jacques Le Marois from Mandrakesoft (among many others) wrote to point out that "MandrakeClub is the first and only place in the world where you can get StarOffice 6.0 currently!" They've worked out an OEM deal with Sun to let those who've paid for a "Silver" membership to MandrakeClub ($120 annually) download the software.
Exactly which MandrakeClub members were eligible for the payware StarOffice was the cause of some contention. "We also answer to your previous post about the ZDNet controversy. It's an interesting case of mis-information spread."
To Bill Brasky!!! That son of a bitch.
Visit the new Troll site!
This is the Flat Broke post, Its a terrible FUCKING monday!
holly shit! i got 1st post without trying!
gobble a dick
The goatse guy for president. Win one for the gaper!
You got nothing but katz nut sack in your mouth you filthy AC!
I've got a better idea. I'll e-mail my senator a picture of me in my backyard wacking trees with my chainsaw!
All those stories have already been posted.
There are those folks who exist that are simply too stupid to run a Unix-like operating system. You know who they are; in fact, many of them frequent this very site with their IE browsers and MSN Messenger rip-offs of applications that were too innovative for Microsoft to come up with themselves even though they spend more money on R&D than any other company in the history of the world.
My friends, co-workers, and I refer to these individuals as people with TSTR*, or Too Stupid To Run *nix syndrome.
Do YOU know anyone suffering from this? If so, please make a note of it and remind them of their simple minds whenever they mumble some "*nix isn't ready for the desk top" while you're using KDE 3 and Evolution, which are a superior desktop environment and mail client, respectively.
If your main goal is to liberate software from its copyright holders, it is necessary to rewrite from scratch.
Of course this leaves you always behind the curve in an eternal game of catch up.
Last week, I went to a clinic for tests for diabetes I know I don't have it but my Doctor thought I might because I can't control my bladder well (I can but like to pee my pants).
They told me not to drink after midnight but I drank 6 very big glasses of water. They told me not to pee. (Who am I to argue?)
I arrived early and they had me wait for a half hour. I was supposed to pee in a bottle, but I acted very figity and asked, "Can I please go to the bathroom?" The said not until I drank some stuff and waited a half an hour. I bounced in my chair (I really had to go bad). I begged and pleaded with them to let me go to the bathroom but they said no because it would ruin my test.
Finally they called my name. When I stood up I lost all control and peed in my pants. I was wearing light blue jeans. I started to cry and said, "Look what you made me do." The lady said, "Sorry but we couldn't let you go before the test." I said, "How am I supposed to get home since I don't have a car and came on the bus." I said that I would have to transfer 3 times and it would be too embarrassing to go home like this. They said I could take a cab. I said that would cost over $15 which I didn't have. They said that they would pay but when the cab driver saw my jeans he said, "There's no way you're getting in my cab." I cried some more and created quite a scene.
Eventually, the lady said that she'd have to drive me home in the clinic's car. She said that I have to wait about one hour. I said that would be uncomfortable but agreed. This clinic only does blood tests etc. so they have no gowns.
The hour was up and my jeans were still drenched. The lady drove me home. She was very sorry and said that this happens about once every 2 months, but that one woman did it three times before she finally made it through her appointment. She told me to come back to try to take the test again but I am going to go for the record and drink even more water tonight. Maybe I will wear my thin white pants with blue panties. The other woman only had 3 accidents. I can beat that.
Today, I went back to the clinic for another attempt at the diabetes test. Again I was told not to eat or drink anything after midnight and not to pee. Again I had six big glasses of water in the morning.
I arrived at the clinic early so I could play my game. I sat and waited for a while. Then I started to act desperate (who was acting?) I went up to the receptionist and asked her if I could use the bathroom. She said I know the rules and that I could not and she asked me if my predicament was as bad as the last time. I said that it was. She apologized and said the only thing that she could do was bump me to an earlier appointment if would that help. I said that I thought it might.
I went back to my seat and was very figity. I was bouncing up and down, crossing and uncrossing my legs. Finally it was my turn to take the test. They called my name and I stood up.
Again I lost total control. The six glasses of water and whatever I drank last night exited me hurriedly. Again I started to cry. I was wearing the thin white pants I spoke about earlier and my blue panties.
There was so much pee that my pants were virtually transparent, as well as my panties. (My pubic hair was clearly visible.) Evenly with all the pee my jeans and shoes could hold, I am sure that we mopped up about a litre/quart.
The receptionist already knew that I could not leave because I would have to catch 3 different buses to get home and the taxi driver wouldn't let me in his cab the las time. She offered to drive me home again on her lunch 2 hours away. So I had to sit in my wet pants for all the waiting room to see.
There was a lady in the waiting room who had her children with her. Her little girl saw what I did and peed her panties too. Her mother scolded her and the little girl said, "But mommy, that lady did it." The lady said with me it was an accident but the little girl did it on purpose. (I had the last laugh there.)
On the way home the receptionist said that she knows I was embarrassed and have a problem. She suggested that I don't drink after 8 instead of midnight and that I bring a change of clothes next time (Friday). I think that I might forget my extra clothes.... I will probably forget not to drink anything too.
And I feel fine!
and fix it so I can log in, goddamnit!
Take pictures of you and your gay linux buddies in one of your "dirty-taco" rituals. I think your senator would enjoy that much more.
Okay, now I know most of you on Slashdot are geeks who sit down in your basement all day, on the internet, tying up the phone line. You are different than me! I live up here in the air, and I have Internet Call Waiting, provided by Pacific Bell. I am so elite. You suck! HULK HOGAN will be on WWF Raw tonight, TNN, 9 P.M. EST. Bye!! shithead
StarOffice 6.0 and OpenOffice is basicly the same product, much like Netscape 6 and Mozilla, where the product is just rebadged. How can MandrakeClub be the "first and only place in the world where you can get StarOffice 6.0" if OpenOffice has always been available for download at its homepage. I would also expect OpenOffice to feature the latest updates and improvements so why would anyone even bother with StarOffice. For those MandrakeClub members complaining that you're not getting StarOffice, just go download OpenOffice.
--Metrollica
Sweet Linux Is Mine!
by Eric Diamond
Where it began
I can't begin to knowin'
But then I know it's growing strong
Was in the spring
And spring became the summer
Who'd have believed it'd come along
Hands, touchin' keyboards
Reachin' out
Touchin' mice
Touchin' disks
Sweet Linux is mine!
Good times never seemed so good
I've been inclined
To believe they never would
But now I
Look at the night
And it don't seem so lonely
We fill it up with 2.4
And when I hack
Sweat runs off my shoulders
How can I hurt when I'm with Linux
Me, hackin' code
Reachin' out
Touchin' keys
Touchin' you
Sweet Linux is mine!
Good times never seemed so good
I've been inclined
To believe they never would
Oh, no, no
Sweet Linux is mine!
Good times never seemed so good
I've been inclined
To believe they never would
Sweet Linux is mine!
The only question that is relevant is -- what does it cost to fix it if it doesn't work?'"
:-)
Or in MS case, how much does it cost to make sure it doesn't work so that all users have to get the new upgrade?
8 * 7 = 42
Interesting?? This is clearly a troll, and not even an original one (saw it
in an earlier story). Come on, moderators...
I was wondering about this the other day. Does it really make a difference to the politicians when you customize some comments for them. I've participated in innumerable fax spamming operations when some controversial bill has been introduced. I'll usually spend some time putting some thoughtful commentary into it, but I wonder whether it's of any value.
I've never received any sort of direct response to any of my customized messages. I've only on rare occasions received a "this is how I stand" form letter form a politician. Do they seriously consider any of the messages? Is it really worth the time I put into it? Anybody out there who had worked for a politician that cares to comment on how such faxes were handled?
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
After reviewing CBDTPA http://cryptome.org/broadbandits.htm I found that the bill makes the following statements:
"13) Consumers receive content such as video or programming in analog form."
First off we all not this is not entirely true for everybody. Maybe this statement means sum content.
"(14) When protected digital content is converted to analog for consumers, it is no longer protected and is subject to conversion into unprotected digital form that can in turn be copied or redistribute illegally."
So now analog should be illegal? I believe audio gurus will still tell you that analog can be better in quality compared to digital. I am not saying digital is bad, as I prefer it, but I know many people who would not want to give up analog audio.
These are just some of the weird things in this bill. And on top of that there are several early statements which contradict this:
"(10) Today, cable and satellite have a competitive advantage over digital television because the closed nature of cable and satellite systems permit encryption, which provides some protection for digital content. " So wait analog is safe?
Of course the entire nature of this bill is wrong, but there are many small things that are wrong with this bill including a lot of contradictions and facts that are not true.
My 2 cents
IShitOnThisPost!
Here, a carefully checked that the link was to a different site, clicked on it in IE -- and, POOF! The guy must send out some kind of anti-IE death ray. I'd figured it was something about his face but there's not even a picture of him at the interview.
By the way:
The good news is that a lot of stuff I write about UI is starting to have an impact on the Gnome and KDE people.
Like I said, I'm a fan, but yeesh! Yeah, Joel -- Gnome and KDE are getting better primarily because they've started listening to you. Bill Gates' claim to have enabled open source is probably more valid.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Damn, I had thought the native Americans discovered America.
["Marge, I agree with you - in theory. In theory, communism works. In theory." - Homer]
You guys are great, you're really really great...
Great Great... Great Really... really!
I remember a story somebody told me once. There use to be this neighborhood with a thousand little shops in a city in England. You could get almost anything you wanted there. Enter the bureaucrats. TheY see squalor and poverty. Enter the bulldozers, the high rise complexes, etc, Now the place really is poor, whereas before most were gainfully employed somehow, etc.
The old situation was aworking living community. The new situation was a death trap.
So the maxim applies to coding, to social policy, and a number of other places.
Sometime the new solutions are far worse than the old problems, despite what marketing says.
Reminds me of a Ferengi proverb somehow.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Their fax machine is screwed now. There's sure to be a decade long queue on Digital Consumer's side, and I wouldn't want to see the paper mess on the senators side.
Slashdot causes a fire hazard! Interns drown in a flood of faxes! News at 11.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
Boy that letter really sucks. See my other post about this. Let me take it point by point:
The Hollings bill will restrict my personal use rights. Congress and the courts have traditionally upheld my right to freely use content that I have legally acquired. But the Hollings bill takes away most of those rights and leaves me with virtually none. Until my fair use rights are ensured, any further encroachment on them must not occur.
Flat out wrong, at least as far as the Senators will see it. The bill in question specifically addresses fair use rights.
The Hollings bill will inevitably prevent innovation because it is the most sweeping regulation of the information technology sector in its history. The bill will give content companies the ability to veto devices like the VCR and the digital Walkman.
This really doesn't say anything, and sounds reactionary.
The Hollings bill is the wrong approach to solving the problem of piracy. A government-mandated standard will never be able to adapt to the rapidly changing digital world. The new "anti-piracy" measures will only harm law-abiding consumers. Every copy protection measure will be defeated by dedicated foreign pirates who sell the stolen goods illicitly. Copy protection will only defeat fair use.
Once again, this sounds reactionary and ill-informed. It might be true in some ways, but it doesn't really address any real issues. The industry knows that they don't have to defeat "foreign pirates", they only have to stop the average consumer.
The content companies said that the DMCA would allow them to deliver great broadband content. Yet four years later, the only outcome of the DMCA has been lawsuits against innovative companies and threats against consumers. We have no reason to believe that the Hollings bill will be any different.
Unfortunately, this is completely irrelevent. The point of this bill is not to provide broadband content, it's to stop piracy.
Once again I have to say: Laws are generally written to solve problems, not just to irritate you. Understand why this law is being written, and attack it based on the fact that the cure will create more problems that it solves. Places to attack: making devices more expensive for law-abiding citizens, privacy (will registration be required for music?), etc.
I particularly liked one of the follow-ups to my original post, where he complained that the music industry is attempting to shift the enforcement of copyright from their own lawyers (where it belongs) to the tech sector. If the music industry wants to attack copyright infringement, then let them go out and start identifying piraters. It's their problem, not the tech industry's problem. I think this would be an excellent point to make in a letter.
But that whiny letter is worse than useless. I recommend against using it.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Troll, Troll! Go away don't come back another day!
There's nothing that can protect you from your stupidity.
cash incinirator
There are other issues about rewritting software, such as considering what is up and down stream from it. A sort program may work perfectly well, but may be wholy unusable as a filter.
Another reason that software may need to be looked at is that they no longer conform with the way people do things. Consider the multitude of program exits that existed before the CUA became widespread.
This is not dissimilar to redesigning peices of machinery to work with other elsewise incompatible machines.
OS/2 - because choice is a terrible thing to waste.
> SMS: Another interesting point was raised in reference to bloatware... Do you ...The WWW is bloatware. Finding things is impossible because there's so .00000000001% of the world ever reads. Since the vast majority of
> think a product like Microsoft Word would benefit by having every feature that is
> used by 1% or less of the installed base removed from the product?
>
> Joel:
> much stuff out there. Think how much hard drive space is wasted on all kinds of web
> pages that only
> people only go to Yahoo, Ebay, and MSN, wouldn't the WWW be better if it only had
> Yahoo, Ebay, and MSN? It would be much more "optimized."
With Joel from Microsoft at the helm the entire contents of the Internet would reside on a single loooooong web page.
The oposite of MS-Bloatware (TM) is not lack of features. The opposite is UN*X's lean tool approach. Use tools for one function or a small set of tightly related functions. Create a screwdriver to screw screws, a hammer to nail nails. You do not create a Rube Goldberg machine with a flight simulator.
---
Anonymity is freedom!
I get trojan warnings when trying to go the spolsky site...
And the site just doesn't seem to work properly once the offending JS is bypassed.
/* FUCK - The F-word is here so that you can grep for it */
I heard a theory recently that, if I remember correctly, vikings were the first to america. They travelled from greenland and landed in what is now Canada.
They have formations/houses/whatever you want to call them built out of rock that they have found. They have also found burial sites which consist of the explorers skeletons, eskimo skeletons, and a mix of breed skeleton.
pretty interesting stuff.
Aliens? Magnetic Rings?! Bah! Who needs that when we have
Sounds like the making of a Microsoft already. Special deals and incentives to draw people away from their money.
And they said that RedHat was the Microsoft of Linux, HA!
But you know that.
I am a sentient ATM.
...they said I wouldn't get bored here.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Obviously, Slashdot editors are moonlighting as writers for the drafting of CBDTPA.
I'm sure I speak for all loyal Slashdot readers when I say 'Thank you for going to such lengths to keep our beloved Slashdot going in these troubled economic times.'
Deja vu?
When will people get it through their thick skulls that petitions dont work.
Lets look at DMCA, did petitions stop it? Hell no.
Lets look at Napster, did petitions save Napster? Hell no.
Why isnt marijuana legal? People have been petitioning for it by the millions for 20 years or more now.
Face it, Petitions have never solved a thing.
Tabacco was made Legal because people didnt obey the laws, civil disobedience by the millions, and there arent enough jails to enforce it, alcohol? Alcohol was illegal once, it took the mafia and illegal activities, corruption and control of the government through the mafia, essentially terrorism tactics to make alcohol legal.
SSSCA, you arent going to stop this unless you fight, you dont have to be violent to fight, you can fight with your intelligence, programmers should write unstopable programs like freenet, rich people should support lobby groups on our side, people who are good writers should write books, articles, editorials, and give as much media attention as possible to this, public speakers should host rallies along with musicians at local colleges where other intelligent people are. Contact churches, libaries, civil rights groups, and convince them how important it is to protect our rights. Contact patriotic groups, anti government groups, and anarchist groups and explain to them how the government is trying to control them not just offline but online as well.
Contact the elderly, contact teachers, and highschool students, explain to all of these groups whats going on, hang posters in front of highschools, near libraries, near sam goody and HMV, Blockbuster and other stores which tell people about the SSSCA, use clever images, such as comparing the SSSCA to Nazism, Explain how unfair it is, use images of jail and rich CEOs, show images of locks on their computer.
If all of the people reading this did this in their towns seperately, meaning true activism on a LARGE scale, Well its simple to break it down into parts.
INFORM --- Tell the public what the SSSCA is!
Explain ---- Tell the public whats wrong with the SSSCA
Results ---- Tell them what will happen if the SSSCA passes, and what kinda society it will lead to if the trend continues
Solution ---- Tell them how to stop the SSSCA, tell them a msg similar to what I'm telling you, explain to them not to just stop the SSSCA, but to promote absolute freedom of speech online, meaning no one can control what you do with your computer, if the RIAA and MPAA does not want us to pirate stuff, they should make it impossible to pirate or undesirable to do so, if this means lowering the price so its not worth buying a CD or DVD burner, or if this means locking the DVD up, they have options, what they shouldnt do is take away our freedoms, its like saying you cant use your hands to draw a copy of a picture you like.
And PLEASE post this on slashback to replace that other lame msg.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Flat out wrong, at least as far as the Senators will see it. The bill in question specifically addresses fair use rights.
No it doesn't. It provides a maximum penalty of $2,500 per work for prohibiting fair use. As I wrote in my letter, that's pocket change to Hollywood, and a more appropriate solution would be to put any work whose encoding prohibits fair use into the public domain.
The industry knows that they don't have to defeat "foreign pirates", they only have to stop the average consumer.
I fixed that, noting that the industry likes to brand fair users as "casual pirates."
The point of this bill is not to provide broadband content, it's to stop piracy.
I think I ought to post my version of the letter. Just wait 2 minutes.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Sorry, for some reason, that file got deleted
Well aren't you the cat's meow!
saru mo ki kara ochiru
According to This {googled} article and it's related documentary program, the first sapien inhabitants where aborigines from the same ancesterage as from Australia. They where then subsequently exterminated during the Asian migration. Garth
They say that the purpose is to combat piracy. I don't see any evidence that this is true, however.
The bill does not appear to be designed to combat piracy, it seems to be designed to control what is available to choose from. And we are likely to be caught in the side spill. It appears really quite vile, and essentially ignores the constitutional justifications (i.e., enabling provisions) for copyright. I really doubt that the lawyers who support it are unaware of this. I think that they just don't care. It's more a matter of "we can force you to live with this" than "this is just".
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
from http://www.openoffice.org/FAQs/mostfaqs.html#7 :
The source code available at OpenOffice.org does not consist of all of the StarOffice code. Usually, the reason for this is that Sun pays to license third party code to include in StarOffice that which it does not have permission to make available in OpenOffice.org. Those things which are or will be present in StarOffice but are not available on OpenOffice.org include:
- Certain fonts (including, especially, Asian language fonts)
- The database component (Adabas D)
- Some templates
- Extensive Clip Art Gallery
- Some sorting functionality (Asian versions)
- Certain file filters
OTOH, I agree with you if you wanted to imply that OO will probably, for most home users, do a good job and have quite the same functionality, I know it does for me.
The official Chinese history, taught in schools, show that the Ming Dynasty's fleets did reach Southeast and South Asia, Arabia and East Africa, but that was as far as they went. There is no doubt that the Ming had the technology to go to West Africa or even "discovered" Western Europe for China, but going across an ocean like the Pacific or the Atlantic may be questionable. (Note the Ming routes were mainly along coasts known to the Chinese people)
See http://www.chinapage.com/zhenghe.html (near the middle of the page) for a map of the Ming voyage based on China's historical records.
It would be great that China discovered America, but the Chinese people do not claim something that cannot be supported. And remember, it is a Englishman, not a Chinese, who makes this claim.
Free Software: the software by the people, of the people and for the people. Develop! Share! Enhance! Enjoy!
I don't see what could possibly make them not want to write back. It's not like I run a website where I'm constantly talking about what idiots we have in congress... oh.... nevermind... :)
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
I am writing to urge you to reject the Hollings copy protection bill, also known as
the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA). I
strongly oppose the bill for the following reason:
Every technical measure that "protects" a piece of data from some uses (such as
illegal copying) but not from others (such as legal viewing) must do so by making
the data accessible only to some programs and not to others. But as there is no
technical way to determine the intentions of a computer program, the decision
must be made by some controlling human authority (the DVD-CCA being an
example of such an authority). Moreover, since that authority cannot be present
at every computer in the world, it must somehow "sign" or "authorize" the devices
which it has chosen to grant access. Furthermore, that signature or authorization
must be somehow rendered secret so that malicious or simply curious people are
not able to duplicate the authorization on unauthorized devices.
The simple implication, then, is that every electronic device, or at least some piece
of software on every electronic device, must be secret from its user. In effect,
knowing how a computer works must be made impossible or illegal or both in order
to implement the provisions of this bill.
The would effectively destroy the general-purpose computer by making all of its
means of input, storage, and output subject to such protected secrecy. If
implemented at the hardware level, it would render illegal the development of
electronic devices by amateurs and hobbyists; if implemented at the software level
it would render illegal all amateur or collaborative software development.
Additionally, since the majority of copyright "piracy" takes place outside of the
United States and thus beyond the reach of this or any other law, the measure
would be of little actual help to the media companies which have lobbied for this
measure.
It would be an understatement to say that this would harm the technology industry.
It would destroy the technology industry in the United States, while drastically
expanding the industry in technology-friendly nations like India and China. It would
compromise the mainstay of the US economy and at the same time doing
irreparable damage to our global leadership and national security. Already,
prominent software developers are declining to visit the United States for fear that
the software they have written might run afoul of the existing Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA); the CBDTPA will exacerbate this problem exponentially.
As a software engineer, I have seen co-workers making preparations to emigrate
or seek expatriate assignments if this bill is enacted. "I will need to consult a lawyer
every time I write a line of code," quipped one of my co-workers; the remark is not
far from the truth.
If you really wish to protect American media companies from revenues lost to
copyright violations, I urge you to support stronger enforcement of the well-tested,
well-understood, and legally and constitutionally sound laws already on the books.
Contrary to the language of many supporters of digital content control, copyright
infringement is already illegal, and needs no additional laws to make it more so.
The proposed measure, like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) before it,
takes a "shotgun" approach to a small and well-defined crime, and will cause
tremendous injury to American technological leadership and one of the fastest-
growing segments of our economy for very little compensating benefit.
I am severely disappointed in your support of the Hollings bill, and respectfully
request that you remove yourself as a co-sponsor.
Helpful links:
(An identical letter was sent to Sen. John Kerry.)
If you say "I'll probably get modded down for this..." then I will mod you down.
Do you understand what rights are?
This is just fucking censorship, I dont care what you say, no government, or group of people no matter who they are, has the right to control how you use what you own.
This is just wrong, what next? Microsoft going to the government claiming "Outlaw open source, its preventing us from making money on our closed source products, all programmers should have licenses so we can properly CONTROL them and we can maintain our monopoly"
You stupid fuck, cant you see? The MPAA and RIAA wants to maintain their monopoly, this is NOT and I mean NOT going to promote broadband, in fact the only reason broadband is being used at the moment is file sharing, what they are trying to do is convince the government to do a War on Sharing lik e the War on drugs.
The War on drugs, i dont agree with it, but it makes sense, you have to prevent the population from becoming a bunch of druggies, but the government isnt arresting people for using drugs, they arrest you for selling it.
I think people who copy and sell programs should go to jail, but people who share programs should have that right. If you dont profit from it, then its not stealing, if you sell something to someone that indicates they would have purchased it from the MPAA or RIAA and that is stealing.
"This really doesn't say anything, and sounds reactionary."
Look, when the leaders of the old system, purposely kill the new system by outlawing it, (Microsoft does it, the RIAA does it, the MPAA does it) It prevents innovation.
Technology is leading us in one direction, the MPAA is trying to fight the technology, Napster, peer to peer, file sharing, its innovation, it could have easily been profitable, the only diffrence is the profits wouldnt be for the RIAA and MPAA, people would still go to the movies to see movies when they first come out, people would STILL go to concerts, people would have to buy CDs to hear them they day they come out, not to mention they could have just released higher quality sound.
Face it, they dont want the consumer, the musician, and the programmer to be empowered, they want control, its all about control, its not about $$, its about control.
Oil companies want control, we could have cars running on air, water, electricity, which can run perfectly fast.
Speaking of cars, lets talk about cars, should cars be restricted to moving at 50mph by forcing all car makers to make slower cars? You'll say hell no. Should guns be made illegal because people can kill with them? No you say?
Should we order people to vote by forcing them too? Think about where this is going,
When we keep passing these laws which "CONTROL" us and remove our rights, we become exactly what we have faught against, remember the war against communism the fight for freedom, fight against nazism, etc, guess what, we are about to turn into that society.
No more libraries, say goodbye to radio, vcr, everything, all electronics will be modified, and eventually all products, books will become electronic, so no more libraries, college students wont be able to share books anymore, so rich students will have a huge advantage.The government will tell you what programs you can and cannot right, you'll need a license to write programs, no more freedom on your computer.
You'll be told what you can and cant read.
You'll be told what you can and cant listen to.
Forget about having parties with loud music, soon all speakers will be outlawed to prevent sharing of sound, so prepare for headphones.
"I particularly liked one of the follow-ups to my original post, where he complained that the music industry is attempting to shift the enforcement of copyright from their own lawyers (where it belongs) to the tech sector. If the music industry wants to attack copyright infringement, then let them go out and start identifying piraters. It's their problem, not the tech industry's problem. I think this would be an excellent point to make in a letter."
Copyright infringement should be stopped only when
it actually causes harm. People sharing music is not causing anyone to lose money, people copying CDs and selling them IS stealing.
Stealing money which could be going to the RIAA.
While i dont agree with selling something you dont own the rights to sell, I think its our right as humans to be able to share anything we have the ability to copy, its the RIAAs job to make it impossible for us to copy if they dont want us sharing it.
Thats like saying you cant share knowledge, yeah you know, you read a book on C programming and then you write a tutorial, should the creators of C sue you for copyright infringement because you are illegally sharing information?
I mean damn, its getting to the point where I can believe that could happen, which means its gone too far.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
It's OK to have a 'complete encyclopedia' at home, even if you use less than 1% of it...
However, it makes no sense to need to open the whole set of encyclopedia books in order to read just one article...
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My impression is that, since the anthrax scare, snail mail going to Congress is even more snail-like. This is due to a backlog with the Postal Service's irradiation equipment, adding weeks to delivery. Anyone from the D.C.-area postal service care to comment?
No, this just means that everyone will have to buy a new TV as making HDTV->Analog converters will be illegal.
All those 2 million HDTV sets sold will have to be replaced, as they won't support the new DRM system.
It's the Consumers Buying DRM Televisions Popularizing Act.
Has anyone else noticed that when it comes to gun control, the mantra is "Guns don't kill people, people kill people". But when it come to piracy, the computers are getting the blame, not the people who operate them. Computers don't copy content, people copy content!
at least have the good sense to do something other than just copy and paste the exact same letter that's offered on Digital Consumer. I mean really, at least try to be original or creative. Personally, I deleted the entire body and wrote in my own letter (Senators and Reps know when thy're getting spam faxes, and while it may have some sway on their impression of public opinion, nothing packs the punch of an original letter).
Then again, the moderators bought your blatent copy and paste job as +4 Insightful, so what do I know, huh?
If I could only live my life with my threshold at 4...
Ooo look at me, I went to an Ivy League school, I got a 3.95 GPA, what college did you go to? Some thing in Finland? What kind of crap code do you write? I wrote bug tracking software, what did you write? Some crappy kernel? Where did you go to school again? I know how to write Javascript, do you? I didn't think so! I will now prove my l33tness by putting Javascript all over my web page so people using anything but IE can't get to my web site, since I worked at MS once I am an MS-boy for life!
Oh yeah, and my software is named FogBUGZ. Do you have any software with as l33t a name as that?! HAHAHAhahaha. Didn't think so.
Well reasoned, thoughtfully attacking the inherent injustice propounded by butt-monkey Hollings?
This I can use, rather than that tripe suggested by the fax petitioners.
--you have been trolled--
Ok, let Fritz quote Godwin's.
however Fritz should have flamed out a long time ago.
What's more, Open Office is included in as part of the Mandrake 8.2 download edition. So, everyone can enjoy OO regardless of club membership.
Most of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence died or were financially ruined during the War
So said Jeff Jacoby, Rush Limbaugh, et al.
Michael Kelley of the Memphis Commerical Register looked into this claim and found it exaggerated, at best.
Sorry, can't find a good link...
The SCO lawsuit makes me wish my company were in Utah. We need a new building.
Perhaps new news would be better? http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03/19/132123 9&mode=thread
is competition good, or is duplication of effort bad?
Sure sure... "privacy", but I don't want my letter to Congress to be private. :-)
i ce s.htm
http://www.usps.gov/common/category/online_serv
-l
Help cure AIDS, cancer, and more. Donate your unused computer time to worldcommunitygrid.org. Join Team Slashdot!
Sweet linux is mine too. And i don't need to go there and take it apart from you...
Because I can have it if I want...
You shone in my morning...today
Bueno se me acabó el inglés ahí. Jajaja
Saludos a Commander Taco y sus secuaces, viva slashdot carajo.
Yes, yes, this may seem a little *heh* reactionary but does not drastic times call for drastic measures?
Dream as if you'll live forever.
Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
~Anonymous~
The key things to include are YOUR name and address.
Send something to YOUR representatives. A blast-faxed generic letter to someone you cannot vote for is NOT taken seriously AT ALL.
If you can't remember who represents you, you can double-check using the geographical search tool on House of Representatives web site.
It will have MORE weight if you also customize it by articulating why YOU think XYZ, the impact it will have on YOU and your family/friends/neighbors, and if you are both polite and not patronizing.
BTW, for great examples of the negative impact of some Digital Rights Management technologies on ordinary non-techie people, check out Joe Kraus's very funny testimony about his parents' use of technology. This was presented before the Senate Judiciary committee a couple of weeks ago.
Liza
These opinions are my own. My employer is not aware of them, does not endorse them, and is not responsible for them.
This is what I wrote, based on the template provided.
MacOS, Windows, BeOS, GNOME, KDE: they're all just Xerox copies