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Microsoft Pulls Plug for Support on NT4
seymansey writes "According to Neowin.net and News.com, Microsoft has apparently announced that as of the end of June, support for the now aging NT4 OS will be pulled. NT4 Server users have until the end of 2004 for support. Windows 98 users will be the next on the list for axed support too. Of course, Microsoft will still provide its knowledge base, but we wont see any more patches, etc. developed for the OS. After 7 years, it's kind of sad to see NT4 go."
Supreme Court Strikes Down Gay Sex Ban
By ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court struck down a ban on gay sex Thursday, ruling that the law was an unconstitutional violation of privacy.
The 6-3 ruling reverses course from a ruling 17 years ago that states could punish homosexuals for what such laws historically called deviant sex.
Laws forbidding homosexual sex, once universal, now are rare. Those on the books are rarely enforced but underpin other kinds of discrimination, lawyers for two Texas men had argued to the court.
The men "are entitled to respect for their private lives," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote.
"The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime," he said.
Justices John Paul Stevens (news - web sites), David Souter (news - web sites), Ruth Bader Ginsburg (news - web sites) and Stephen Breyer (news - web sites) agreed with Kennedy in full. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (news - web sites) agreed with the outcome of the case but not all of Kennedy's rationale.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia (news - web sites) and Clarence Thomas (news - web sites) dissented.
The court "has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda," Scalia wrote for the three. He took the unusual step of reading his dissent from the bench.
"The court has taken sides in the culture war," Scalia said, adding that he has "nothing against homosexuals."
Although the majority opinion said the case did not "involve whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter," Scalia said the ruling invites laws allowing gay marriage.
"This reasoning leaves on shaky, pretty shaky grounds, state laws limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples," Scalia wrote.
Thomas wrote separately to say that while he considers the Texas law at issue "uncommonly silly," he cannot agree to strike it down because he finds no general right to privacy in the Constitution.
Thomas calls himself a strict adherent to the actual words of the Constitution as opposed to modern-day interpretations. If he were a Texas legislator and not a judge, Thomas said, he would vote to repeal the law.
"Punishing someone for expressing his sexual preference through noncommercial consensual conduct with another adult does not appear to be a worthy way to expend valuable law enforcement resources," Thomas wrote.
The two men at the heart of the case, John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner were each fined $200 and spent a night in jail for the misdemeanor sex charge in 1998.
The case began when a neighbor with a grudge faked a distress call to police, telling them that a man was "going crazy" in Lawrence's apartment. Police went to the apartment, pushed open the door and found the two men having anal sex.
"This ruling lets us get on with our lives and it opens the door for gay people all over the country," Lawrence said Thursday.
Ruth Harlow, one of Lawrence's lawyers, called the ruling historic.
"The court had the courage to reverse one of its gravest mistakes and to replace that with a resounding statement," of gay civil rights, Harlow said.
"This is a giant leap forward to a day where we are no longer branded as criminals."
As recently as 1960, every state had an anti-sodomy law. In 37 states, the statutes have been repealed by lawmakers or blocked by state courts.
Of the 13 states with sodomy laws, four " Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri " prohibit oral and anal sex between same-sex couples. The other nine ban consensual sodomy for everyone: Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia.
Thursday's ruling apparently invalidates those laws as well.
The Supreme Court was widely criticized 17 years ago when it upheld an a
First Post? Are you serious? NT needs to die anyways.
you aren't a ./ reader - are you?
I just heard some sad news on the radio today - U.S. senator Strom Thurmond was found dead in his Edgefield home last night. There weren't any more details yet.
:'(
I'm sure we'll all miss him - even if you weren't a fan of his promoting segregation and oppressing civil rights there's no denying his contribution to the political transformation of the South and the Slashdot trolling scene. Truly an American icon.
He shall be missed
Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD]
Consenting gay sex is not sodomy, any more than consenting heterosexual sex is rape. Learn the difference. It's only sodomy if the owner of the asshole did not consent to it!
If any kind of sex should be illegal then IMHO unprotected heterosexual sex without a Certificate of Fitness to Breed should be. These goddamn breeders keep inflicting their f**ked-up brats on the rest of society. F**king single mothers and their f**king disposable diapers! As though having to wash s**t out of cotton ones is somehow more unpleasant than becoming buried under a mountain of rubbish that will still be thre in 2000 years' time?! I suggest making abortion compulsory (unless a Certificate of Fitness to Breed has been issued before the sex act takes place) and maybe even allowing it retrospectively in cases where the brat causes sufficient misery for the rest of society.
last time i checked, both american football and international football (or soccer in america) kick the ball with your feet... it's called punting
Oh I should have actually read teh article. but then again, taking the blurb above at face value was more fun! >
Yeah lets feel sad about a racist old prick who compounded the years of white supremacy by dragging them all the way into the 21st century. I for one are glad he's gone.
How did you get surround sound working in linux?
I'm currently stuck with a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz that only does 2 channel stereo (Win98SE does 6 channels). I'd be more than happy to pay for a new card that has decent 4+ channel support in linux. I've gone over ALSA's sound card matrix thing, but they don't explicitly say "4 channels supported" as far as I can see. The closest they get is stuff like "[Ro]" and "[To]" which is digital out support.
Please reply, I'm desperate.