No, no, no, this is the government. And, believe it or not, it's gotten better.
But yes, I agree with you. If I have to e-mail them *at all*, it will be in ASCII. And the last time I did, all I got is an automated reply. Maybe they'll get back to me when I start collecting social security... --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Hopefully this will work out, and they will get some thoughtful comments to chew on. I remember when we were worried about "taxing bandwidth", and I submitted a comment to the FCC... their rules for submitting it were completely draconian! (something about sending them a disk with a wordperfect file so they could post it on the web)
This page isn't written in English as we know it, (I'm not fluent in Legalese) but at least it looks like they take e-mailed comments. And the bottom of the page is rather interesting too... Hopefully the government is getting a clue.
[...] Dated: November 15, 1999. Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights. Approved by: James H. Billington, The Librarian of Congress. [FR Doc. 99-30556 Filed 11-23-99; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 1410-30-P
HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 20:38:35 GMT Server: Apache/1.3.9 (Unix) Debian/GNU mod_perl/1.21 Connection: close Content-Type: text/html
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Yep, some things haven't really changed at all. Bill Gates still doesn't get it. Sometimes I wonder how much good code could possibly get written by unenthusiastic workers...
It's unsurprising to see that the quality of Microsoft's support and their willingness to explain to the customer what they've "bought" with their money hasn't changed one iota in 20 years.
The TRS-80 sucked, but it sucks even worse how little these companies cared about their users. That's an excellent justification to "rip them off".
("If you won't support me, I'll find a way to do it anyhow" -- people want to accomplish their goals, and if you try to hinder them when you should be helping them, let it be on your head.) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Ooo, 128-bit encryption, that's 16 whole BYTES. No one will ever break that...
We all know that the W2K machine that was "naked" on the internet had no problems at all. Nooo. Uh uh. And if they gave you that Administrator password, it'd be *fine*. (Compare to the linux box. um... no, no comparison.)
What are they going to do to enhance security, stop selling Office? Those pesky macros, always making my paperclip sick...
But seriously, folks, now that Microsoft released this to the press, that they're really *really* serious about it this time, and they're going to be extra-nice by charging us more for this week's upgrade, don't you think we should let them play with the big boys yet?
Nah, I didn't think so either.
Sure, it's easy to criticise Microsoft. Because it's so much fun. And historically accurate. I mean, if they wanted to try to do better now, they'd have to issue a formal apology to anyone who ever had to suffer through an unpatched Windows bug. Whoops, I think that's everyone! </CHEAP SHOT> --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Yes, but you don't want a write-in like Segfault had.
However, if you did, you'd be amazed at what a strong showing the independent party for NATALIE PORTMAN NAKED AND PETRIFIED FOR PRUZ1DENT!!!1!1 has...;) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Well, I can't really take credit for it, but I admit it had me convinced. I don't know about the reverse-sin-taxes, though. (saint-tax-exemptions?) But maybe that's just because I don't like sin-tax in the first place. Ever since those BASIC interpreters gave me sin-tax errors...:)
But yes, you could create a simple system that's good enough like this and massively reduce paperwork. In England, they have a (huge, in my opinion) VAT (value-added tax)... but they still tax the hell out of their citizens anyhow, so maybe that's a bad example. (Disclaimer: not from England. If you are, feel free to enlighten me as to the system there)
What I like about it, though, is people who would normally pay huge taxes on their house and land that they can't afford on their current income wouldn't have to be punished so harshly. Just because they already have possessions doesn't mean they still have money. Tax people when the money changes hands, and that way you're sure to get some of it. --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Maybe I didn't make myself clear. I don't mind the *occasional* important patent story every week or so. But if whining won't help, how about statistics?
Look up Patent Stories...
0 TiVo Sued for Patent Infringement by Hemos on 03:24 PM January 20th, 2000 EST 135 1 Dolly Cloning Method Patented by Hemos on 12:06 PM January 20th, 2000 EST 71 2 Geoworks Demands Royalties For All WAP Apps by Roblimo on 10:42 AM January 20th, 2000 EST 187 3 PTO's New DNA Guidelines by Hemos on 11:24 PM January 12th, 2000 EST 149 4 Xerox Wins Prelim Patent Ruling Against 3Com by Hemos on 03:51 PM January 11th, 2000 EST 328 5 Uruguayan SuSE Reseller Trying to Trademark Linux by Hemos on 09:07 PM January 6th, 2000 EST 217 6 Is H.R.1907 Patent Reform that We Want? by Cliff on 03:00 PM January 6th, 2000 EST 291 7 Google (Patent Pending) by Roblimo on 05:24 AM December 27th, 1999 EST 288 8 The IP Lawyers Strike Back by Hemos on 10:30 AM December 24th, 1999 EST 200 9 Feed Magazine Commentary on Patent Insanity by Roblimo on 04:23 AM December 24th, 1999 EST 85
Hmm. Three of them today. Rather unusual. And it looks like the usual culprits are Hemos and Roblimo. Those bastards!
Hey, a "bite me" defense would be cool. Nice handle, by the way. --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Hmm. Is this a bad thing? Every month it's like a constant "We've lost our lease, everything must go!" sale. After a while they might have to give in and start advertising, or get more public funding, a cooler image...
Nah. I don't want PBS to sell out any more than they already have. I was pissed when they changed the Sesame Street intro to be more "hip". There are just some things in life you don't have to change. (But I'd happily have advertising on PBS if they didn't have to change *that*.) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
:) Touche. Of course, while we're at it, buying people is classic conservative thinking, but this was meant to be humorous anyhow. You're not being punished, you're setting a good example for the rest of us; by working harder, you're taking on more responsibility for your country. Or, you could spend time learning how to (sometimes legally) evade the system. Roth IRAs look rather nice nowadays, at least, and failing that, you can pay an accountant, or buy a local authority figure.
I wish I could change my economic status by working harder. Sadly in my case, the opposite is true. If I work harder, I could end up paying *more* to my University. Over the summer, however, is another matter.
But there are many people out there who work much longer hours than I would for much less money. They can work "harder" all they want, but they don't necessarily get the cushy tech-support jobs over the crappy bus-driving / hotel-security / food-service jobs. Work smarter, not harder. Anyone who *really* believes that the wealthy physically work harder is stupider than they think you are. Maybe. That's another good reason why the wealthy should pay more in taxes. --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Well, it started to be this way for obvious reasons: follow the money.
I know it wasn't this way back when I read "Nintendo Power", yea, when it first came out. You couldn't get offended by the advertising unless you were afraid of fat little Italian men and giant mushrooms.
Before that, there was no problem with Breakout and Pong, I'm pretty sure.
So it's obviously a recent thing, and apparently most of the gamers with the new, fast "gaming computers" are men. Otherwise, the gaming magazines are being pretty stupid. But it'd be worth it to have at least *a* gaming magazine devoted to the latest puzzle games, RPG's, etc., with advertising content to match. Heck, if I bought magazines, I might look at that. That's why I got Nintendo Power, to see what the next Zelda, Megaman, or Final Fantasy game looked like. --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I don't think that's how it works. When you use up your mod points, doesn't someone else get mod points? I'd hope they've figured that problem out in the code already.
But yes, I agree with the general principle, it's better to moderate up than to moderate down. But what's the point of moderating a +3 up to a +4 when you could be helping get rid of a slew of huge, random, content-free posts? Sometimes it's better to help slay the horde of orcs so the other players can move freely than promote the level 24 character to level 25...:)
(where's that Doom interface to Moderation when I need it?) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
For starters: this ad is written by "Atari"? Get a new nickname girl, that one is taken by an evil gaming corporation that has sexy game characters like those found in Gauntlet: Legends. The Valkyrie has that phallic sword that she always carries, and her screams are so sexy... Oops, I've been reading that article for too long.
I don't read gaming magazines, but game advertising sucks anyhow. Who wants to be shouted at with "SEGA!". At least "Play-stashion" is a bit more bearable, but... come on. Most of the cool ads I've seen are literally just showing you how cool the game looks (and not really sexist, that I've seen). And really, who reads magazines anymore, when we have the internet?:)
Well, I tend to like RPGs and pretty games. I don't play that many shooters. I'd rather be playing Angband, Final Fantasy, Ultima, Star Control, Heroes of Might and Magic, (or Masters of Magic! Please make a sequel!) those types of games.
And from my experience with the chicks I know that play games... They tend to play some RPG's, more puzzle games than I do, and more heavy storyline games, some written by women. Some Sierra games come to mind (even sometimes including Leisure Suit Larry -- take that, silly article writer, it's funny stuff!) as well as King's Quest, and also the Gabriel Knight series (GK3 looks pretty cool) and many others...
Of course, my generalizations could be horribly wrong, so please, any geekgrrls who would rather be playing Tomb Raider and Quake 3 please speak up, so we can get your e-m... um... hear your opinions.:) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Nowadays "liberal" is becoming a bad word, as it is overused by those darn conservatives. It used to be that liberal might imply, say, democrat, libertarian, free-thinking, progressive... Now it's liberal in the context of "tax-and-spend liberal", as opposed to the much more noble "tax-exemption-for-me republican"...
That, in fact, would be the only *good* thing about a flat tax: getting rid of the loopholes in the current system. But I doubt they'll get rid of property tax, capital gains tax, gift tax, intangibles tax, etc., etc. anytime soon...
Oh, and for any rich, offended, extreme-right-wing republicans out there: my opinion is natural given my economic status. If you want to change my mind, try donating me some money instead of arguing with me. I'll like you better, and you can find out if I can be bought. *And* it's better than property tax, because you know the student that you are helping! Think of it as a scholarship for people who will take your money. --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
George W. Bush doesn't have a very good "online reputation" (I wasn't impressed with his buying up domain names--if people don't like you, they'll tell you, and if you buy the domain name they wanted to get, they'll just like you less.) and I've never liked Al Gore that much because of his stances on encryption, Clipper, and the like. (even if he did invent the internet...;)
But... how many people out there get most of their political news from the internet? Maybe that would make a good slashdot poll, because I know I don't, but I'm sure other people do. I know the Starr report was a very popular download, so maybe this will start to make a difference. Heck, ever since Byte disappeared from the shelves, I haven't really supported dead-tree media at all...
Oh, and for future reference: don't support anyone who thinks the flat tax will solve all of your problems. They're morons. All it does is change the current (progressive) bracket system with a simpler, flat/regressive one. A better solution would be a national sales tax with exemptions for food / clothing / books, but I don't think people realize how large it would have to be. --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
If the courts read slashdot, maybe they'd agree with us. Since they don't, I don't see why *I* have to keep reading about it.
Don't preach to the choir, preach to the masses.
Or, possibly, the world can't be going to hell faster than slashdot is, because we'd be there already. Geez.:) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I think you at least partially understand my ludicrous reasoning.
What scares people about digital technology is that they are able to make very good to perfect copies that don't degrade and can last for a long time, cheaply. That's also why analog tape players and VCRs degrade copies from the originals. Some of this is by design, when they were created.
Since streaming technology is inherently flawed in this respect, it is more like analog technology. Copying it right now would be silly. Therefore, this is more like TV over the internet than it would be if I, say, made a high-quality movie file of "Dawson's Creek" or yesterday's NBA game or whatever, and put it up for download. (of course, that would also be expensive or time-consuming to copy for most people)
Anyhow, my point is, this stuff isn't easy to redistribute on the internet. And the people paying for this service are essentially paying for watching Canadian TV. It's about as dangerous as streaming a RealAudio radio station from England. (My favorite is Virgin Radio)
Feel free to reply, without the silly age comments that make you sound so young.:) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Well, that's your opinion. I admit I'm not well-qualified to talk on NT or BSD system internals, so I won't. But, from the little I remember about Linux, both fork() and thread spawning were implemented with the clone system call, the difference being that fork() also has to set up a separate memory space for the data. There are cases where this would be useful, and then you would use fork() for them. There are cases where it would not, and then you would use threads.
Frankly, it doesn't matter what you think a modern OS should or should not do: until there are no situations where using fork() would still be useful, a modern OS should still use it. I don't think it has outlived its usefulness yet.
And yes, NT focuses on threads more than processes. But if you wanted to implement it correctly, one approach would be to write the best threading model possible, and implement processes on top of that.
(I know NT does some "weird" stuff because of the VMS baggage, but I don't remember enough, really. Believe me, none of us would complain about NT if it also shared the *advantages* of VMS, such as wonderful clustering, great stability, low system requirements, the ability to stick it in a closet and forget its there, and an adventure game on every machine.;) --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
It says on ICraveTV's site that the programming "are those freely available to Toronto, Canada", and there's a comment about that in the previous slashdot thread, too.
I see nothing wrong with rebroadcasting over the internet what's already on the airwaves. If I captured jpegs from my TV capture card and posted them on my homepage (as I've seen many people do), is that illegal? I'm paying for the signal, the TV card, the internet connection... aren't I paying for the content, too?
This sounds like a discussion we've had before on slashdot. As a consumer, *I* think I'm paying for the content. *They*, the people selling it to me, think I'm paying for a license to watch it, and forget about it forever after until I want to pay for it again. If I can tape shows off of TV, I should be able to do this.
Now, selling it is another matter, but if it's mine, shouldn't I be able to show it to people? It shouldn't be a perfect copy anyhow. And if they're willing to pay for it, isn't that just a transaction between us, they get my property, etc.?
On the internet, if I view a copyrighted image, I guarantee you many copies of it have just been made in various places due to the technology at work. Are you going to sue me, Netscape, Microsoft, or the routers in between?
Of course, I also am not a lawyer, but I'd be happy if one of those could enlighten us about where this falls between "fair use" and "theft", because the line is pretty gray. --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Let's review real quick, and see which handy obvious things have been patented (thank god they expire after 17 years, otherwise there would be no such thing as a free UNIX!)...
the pixel,the character generator, sprites... ...on-screen programming, program guides...
What's next? (quick, patent it!)
How about "a method whereby animated characters interactively provide on-screen programming and program guides, comprising a character generator, animated sprites using the XOR method, an intelligent agent searching interface, local storage of programming information that can be retrieved from an on-demand network of"... blah, blah, blah.
Sure, it's just MS-Bob+TV-Guide, but... patent it, quick, so you can *sue* them when they try to do it, and *counter-sue* them if they try to sue you!
Patent, patent, gotta patent all, gotta patent'em all...I hate patents! --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Now, the Forbes article was pretty good. I can understand how someone with her background could help out on an idea like this, but she certainly didn't invent it outright, which is what the Wired article sounds like. Maybe we could have gotten the full story before, but she's dead now, and let the media make a story about it all they want, they always do... --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Hey, Linus, thanks for reminding me about the Transmeta(tm) announcement! I know what I'm going to be reading on slashdot tomorrow....
I know enough about trademark law to feel sorry for the man, I'm sure he hates this crap as much as we do. But, it's good to know that "our creator" is looking out for the good name of Linux(tm). And I'm glad religion doesn't work the same way.:)
Also, now I want to start a yyyy corp and trademark xxxx(tm).:)
xxxx is a trademark of yyyy. Neener, neener, profits are for losers... (Dilbert) All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners. --- pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Slashdot Mirror
No, no, no, this is the government. And, believe it or not, it's gotten better .
But yes, I agree with you. If I have to e-mail them *at all*, it will be in ASCII. And the last time I did, all I got is an automated reply. Maybe they'll get back to me when I start collecting social security...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Hopefully this will work out, and they will get some thoughtful comments to chew on. I remember when we were worried about "taxing bandwidth", and I submitted a comment to the FCC... their rules for submitting it were completely draconian! (something about sending them a disk with a wordperfect file so they could post it on the web)
This page isn't written in English as we know it, (I'm not fluent in Legalese) but at least it looks like they take e-mailed comments. And the bottom of the page is rather interesting too... Hopefully the government is getting a clue.
[...]
Dated: November 15, 1999.
Marybeth Peters,
Register of Copyrights.
Approved by:
James H. Billington,
The Librarian of Congress.
[FR Doc. 99-30556 Filed 11-23-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 1410-30-P
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Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html
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<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE>200 OK</TITLE>
</HEAD><BODY>
<H1>OK</H1>
The server encountered an internal error or
misconfiguration and was unable to complete
your request.<P>
Please contact the server administrator,
webmaster@sailor.lib.md.us and inform them of the time the error occurred,
and anything you might have done that may have
caused the error.<P>
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---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Yep, some things haven't really changed at all. Bill Gates still doesn't get it. Sometimes I wonder how much good code could possibly get written by unenthusiastic workers...
It's unsurprising to see that the quality of Microsoft's support and their willingness to explain to the customer what they've "bought" with their money hasn't changed one iota in 20 years.
The TRS-80 sucked, but it sucks even worse how little these companies cared about their users. That's an excellent justification to "rip them off".
("If you won't support me, I'll find a way to do it anyhow" -- people want to accomplish their goals, and if you try to hinder them when you should be helping them, let it be on your head.)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
:) I'm glad someone got the joke. I didn't even read the checklist, but it sounds painful...
Either someone at Microsoft has a sense of humor, or... umm. No, the alternative is too scary.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
This is too funny - check out what Microsoft recommends for you to do, to see the IIS 4.0 Security checklist.
It's good to see that they're giving us those safety tips already.
This is off of http://www.microsoft.com/security/ - the link is in the article too, but it's broken.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Ooo, 128-bit encryption, that's 16 whole BYTES. No one will ever break that...
We all know that the W2K machine that was "naked" on the internet had no problems at all. Nooo. Uh uh. And if they gave you that Administrator password, it'd be *fine*. (Compare to the linux box. um... no, no comparison.)
What are they going to do to enhance security, stop selling Office? Those pesky macros, always making my paperclip sick...
But seriously, folks, now that Microsoft released this to the press, that they're really *really* serious about it this time, and they're going to be extra-nice by charging us more for this week's upgrade, don't you think we should let them play with the big boys yet?
Nah, I didn't think so either.
Sure, it's easy to criticise Microsoft. Because it's so much fun. And historically accurate. I mean, if they wanted to try to do better now, they'd have to issue a formal apology to anyone who ever had to suffer through an unpatched Windows bug. Whoops, I think that's everyone!
</CHEAP SHOT>
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Yes, but you don't want a write-in like Segfault had.
;)
However, if you did, you'd be amazed at what a strong showing the independent party for NATALIE PORTMAN NAKED AND PETRIFIED FOR PRUZ1DENT!!!1!1 has...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Well, I can't really take credit for it, but I admit it had me convinced. I don't know about the reverse-sin-taxes, though. (saint-tax-exemptions?) But maybe that's just because I don't like sin-tax in the first place. Ever since those BASIC interpreters gave me sin-tax errors... :)
But yes, you could create a simple system that's good enough like this and massively reduce paperwork. In England, they have a (huge, in my opinion) VAT (value-added tax)... but they still tax the hell out of their citizens anyhow, so maybe that's a bad example. (Disclaimer: not from England. If you are, feel free to enlighten me as to the system there)
What I like about it, though, is people who would normally pay huge taxes on their house and land that they can't afford on their current income wouldn't have to be punished so harshly. Just because they already have possessions doesn't mean they still have money. Tax people when the money changes hands, and that way you're sure to get some of it.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Maybe I didn't make myself clear. I don't mind the *occasional* important patent story every week or so. But if whining won't help, how about statistics?
Look up Patent Stories...
0 TiVo Sued for Patent Infringement by Hemos on 03:24 PM January 20th, 2000 EST 135
1 Dolly Cloning Method Patented by Hemos on 12:06 PM January 20th, 2000 EST 71
2 Geoworks Demands Royalties For All WAP Apps by Roblimo on 10:42 AM January 20th, 2000 EST 187
3 PTO's New DNA Guidelines by Hemos on 11:24 PM January 12th, 2000 EST 149
4 Xerox Wins Prelim Patent Ruling Against 3Com by Hemos on 03:51 PM January 11th, 2000 EST 328
5 Uruguayan SuSE Reseller Trying to Trademark Linux by Hemos on 09:07 PM January 6th, 2000 EST 217
6 Is H.R.1907 Patent Reform that We Want? by Cliff on 03:00 PM January 6th, 2000 EST 291
7 Google (Patent Pending) by Roblimo on 05:24 AM December 27th, 1999 EST 288
8 The IP Lawyers Strike Back by Hemos on 10:30 AM December 24th, 1999 EST 200
9 Feed Magazine Commentary on Patent Insanity by Roblimo on 04:23 AM December 24th, 1999 EST 85
Hmm. Three of them today. Rather unusual. And it looks like the usual culprits are Hemos and Roblimo. Those bastards!
Hey, a "bite me" defense would be cool. Nice handle, by the way.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Hmm. Is this a bad thing? Every month it's like a constant "We've lost our lease, everything must go!" sale. After a while they might have to give in and start advertising, or get more public funding, a cooler image...
Nah. I don't want PBS to sell out any more than they already have. I was pissed when they changed the Sesame Street intro to be more "hip". There are just some things in life you don't have to change. (But I'd happily have advertising on PBS if they didn't have to change *that*.)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
:) Touche. Of course, while we're at it, buying people is classic conservative thinking, but this was meant to be humorous anyhow. You're not being punished, you're setting a good example for the rest of us; by working harder, you're taking on more responsibility for your country. Or, you could spend time learning how to (sometimes legally) evade the system. Roth IRAs look rather nice nowadays, at least, and failing that, you can pay an accountant, or buy a local authority figure.
I wish I could change my economic status by working harder. Sadly in my case, the opposite is true. If I work harder, I could end up paying *more* to my University. Over the summer, however, is another matter.
But there are many people out there who work much longer hours than I would for much less money. They can work "harder" all they want, but they don't necessarily get the cushy tech-support jobs over the crappy bus-driving / hotel-security / food-service jobs. Work smarter, not harder. Anyone who *really* believes that the wealthy physically work harder is stupider than they think you are. Maybe. That's another good reason why the wealthy should pay more in taxes.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Well, it started to be this way for obvious reasons: follow the money.
I know it wasn't this way back when I read "Nintendo Power", yea, when it first came out. You couldn't get offended by the advertising unless you were afraid of fat little Italian men and giant mushrooms.
Before that, there was no problem with Breakout and Pong, I'm pretty sure.
So it's obviously a recent thing, and apparently most of the gamers with the new, fast "gaming computers" are men. Otherwise, the gaming magazines are being pretty stupid. But it'd be worth it to have at least *a* gaming magazine devoted to the latest puzzle games, RPG's, etc., with advertising content to match. Heck, if I bought magazines, I might look at that. That's why I got Nintendo Power, to see what the next Zelda, Megaman, or Final Fantasy game looked like.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I don't think that's how it works. When you use up your mod points, doesn't someone else get mod points? I'd hope they've figured that problem out in the code already.
:)
But yes, I agree with the general principle, it's better to moderate up than to moderate down. But what's the point of moderating a +3 up to a +4 when you could be helping get rid of a slew of huge, random, content-free posts? Sometimes it's better to help slay the horde of orcs so the other players can move freely than promote the level 24 character to level 25...
(where's that Doom interface to Moderation when I need it?)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
For starters: this ad is written by "Atari"? Get a new nickname girl, that one is taken by an evil gaming corporation that has sexy game characters like those found in Gauntlet: Legends. The Valkyrie has that phallic sword that she always carries, and her screams are so sexy... Oops, I've been reading that article for too long.
:)
:)
I don't read gaming magazines, but game advertising sucks anyhow. Who wants to be shouted at with "SEGA!". At least "Play-stashion" is a bit more bearable, but... come on. Most of the cool ads I've seen are literally just showing you how cool the game looks (and not really sexist, that I've seen). And really, who reads magazines anymore, when we have the internet?
Well, I tend to like RPGs and pretty games. I don't play that many shooters. I'd rather be playing Angband, Final Fantasy, Ultima, Star Control, Heroes of Might and Magic, (or Masters of Magic! Please make a sequel!) those types of games.
And from my experience with the chicks I know that play games... They tend to play some RPG's, more puzzle games than I do, and more heavy storyline games, some written by women. Some Sierra games come to mind (even sometimes including Leisure Suit Larry -- take that, silly article writer, it's funny stuff!) as well as King's Quest, and also the Gabriel Knight series (GK3 looks pretty cool) and many others...
Of course, my generalizations could be horribly wrong, so please, any geekgrrls who would rather be playing Tomb Raider and Quake 3 please speak up, so we can get your e-m... um... hear your opinions.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Nowadays "liberal" is becoming a bad word, as it is overused by those darn conservatives. It used to be that liberal might imply, say, democrat, libertarian, free-thinking, progressive... Now it's liberal in the context of "tax-and-spend liberal", as opposed to the much more noble "tax-exemption-for-me republican"...
That, in fact, would be the only *good* thing about a flat tax: getting rid of the loopholes in the current system. But I doubt they'll get rid of property tax, capital gains tax, gift tax, intangibles tax, etc., etc. anytime soon...
Oh, and for any rich, offended, extreme-right-wing republicans out there: my opinion is natural given my economic status. If you want to change my mind, try donating me some money instead of arguing with me. I'll like you better, and you can find out if I can be bought. *And* it's better than property tax, because you know the student that you are helping! Think of it as a scholarship for people who will take your money.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I agree, that's pitiful.
I'd like to send out a big FUCK YOU to Mr. Smargle here, and I encourage the moderators to send those posts to oblivion--at least -2, if possible.
I like to read at -1 sometimes, to see what people are saying. But I'd appreciate it if I could do that without my netscape trying to swap.
And for people with slow connections at home... well, at least it's compressible.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
George W. Bush doesn't have a very good "online reputation" (I wasn't impressed with his buying up domain names--if people don't like you, they'll tell you, and if you buy the domain name they wanted to get, they'll just like you less.) and I've never liked Al Gore that much because of his stances on encryption, Clipper, and the like. (even if he did invent the internet... ;)
But... how many people out there get most of their political news from the internet? Maybe that would make a good slashdot poll, because I know I don't, but I'm sure other people do. I know the Starr report was a very popular download, so maybe this will start to make a difference. Heck, ever since Byte disappeared from the shelves, I haven't really supported dead-tree media at all...
Oh, and for future reference: don't support anyone who thinks the flat tax will solve all of your problems. They're morons. All it does is change the current (progressive) bracket system with a simpler, flat/regressive one. A better solution would be a national sales tax with exemptions for food / clothing / books, but I don't think people realize how large it would have to be.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
If the courts read slashdot, maybe they'd agree with us. Since they don't, I don't see why *I* have to keep reading about it.
:)
Don't preach to the choir, preach to the masses.
Or, possibly, the world can't be going to hell faster than slashdot is, because we'd be there already. Geez.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
No more copyright, trademark, infringement, legal action or otherwise stories for today please, thank you.
Let's just set up "Slashmark--News for Lawyers. Stuff that's argued forever."
Also, anyone else here think lawsuits for linking to "blah" is lame? Can I sue a search engine yet?
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I think you at least partially understand my ludicrous reasoning.
:)
What scares people about digital technology is that they are able to make very good to perfect copies that don't degrade and can last for a long time, cheaply. That's also why analog tape players and VCRs degrade copies from the originals. Some of this is by design, when they were created.
Since streaming technology is inherently flawed in this respect, it is more like analog technology. Copying it right now would be silly. Therefore, this is more like TV over the internet than it would be if I, say, made a high-quality movie file of "Dawson's Creek" or yesterday's NBA game or whatever, and put it up for download. (of course, that would also be expensive or time-consuming to copy for most people)
Anyhow, my point is, this stuff isn't easy to redistribute on the internet. And the people paying for this service are essentially paying for watching Canadian TV. It's about as dangerous as streaming a RealAudio radio station from England. (My favorite is Virgin Radio)
Feel free to reply, without the silly age comments that make you sound so young.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Re:fork():
;)
Well, that's your opinion. I admit I'm not well-qualified to talk on NT or BSD system internals, so I won't. But, from the little I remember about Linux, both fork() and thread spawning were implemented with the clone system call, the difference being that fork() also has to set up a separate memory space for the data. There are cases where this would be useful, and then you would use fork() for them. There are cases where it would not, and then you would use threads.
Frankly, it doesn't matter what you think a modern OS should or should not do: until there are no situations where using fork() would still be useful, a modern OS should still use it. I don't think it has outlived its usefulness yet.
And yes, NT focuses on threads more than processes. But if you wanted to implement it correctly, one approach would be to write the best threading model possible, and implement processes on top of that.
(I know NT does some "weird" stuff because of the VMS baggage, but I don't remember enough, really. Believe me, none of us would complain about NT if it also shared the *advantages* of VMS, such as wonderful clustering, great stability, low system requirements, the ability to stick it in a closet and forget its there, and an adventure game on every machine.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
It says on ICraveTV's site that the programming "are those freely available to Toronto, Canada", and there's a comment about that in the previous slashdot thread, too.
I see nothing wrong with rebroadcasting over the internet what's already on the airwaves. If I captured jpegs from my TV capture card and posted them on my homepage (as I've seen many people do), is that illegal? I'm paying for the signal, the TV card, the internet connection... aren't I paying for the content, too?
This sounds like a discussion we've had before on slashdot. As a consumer, *I* think I'm paying for the content. *They*, the people selling it to me, think I'm paying for a license to watch it, and forget about it forever after until I want to pay for it again. If I can tape shows off of TV, I should be able to do this.
Now, selling it is another matter, but if it's mine, shouldn't I be able to show it to people? It shouldn't be a perfect copy anyhow. And if they're willing to pay for it, isn't that just a transaction between us, they get my property, etc.?
On the internet, if I view a copyrighted image, I guarantee you many copies of it have just been made in various places due to the technology at work. Are you going to sue me, Netscape, Microsoft, or the routers in between?
Of course, I also am not a lawyer, but I'd be happy if one of those could enlighten us about where this falls between "fair use" and "theft", because the line is pretty gray.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Let's review real quick, and see which handy obvious things have been patented (thank god they expire after 17 years, otherwise there would be no such thing as a free UNIX!)...
the pixel,the character generator, sprites...
...on-screen programming, program guides...
What's next? (quick, patent it!)
How about "a method whereby animated characters interactively provide on-screen programming and program guides, comprising a character generator, animated sprites using the XOR method, an intelligent agent searching interface, local storage of programming information that can be retrieved from an on-demand network of"... blah, blah, blah.
Sure, it's just MS-Bob+TV-Guide, but... patent it, quick, so you can *sue* them when they try to do it, and *counter-sue* them if they try to sue you!
Patent, patent, gotta patent all, gotta patent'em all...I hate patents!
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Apparently you only get this famous after you die and you finally can't stop the media from talking about you--it sounds like the story of her life.
Here's a link from before she died...
MIT Inventors
Now, the Forbes article was pretty good. I can understand how someone with her background could help out on an idea like this, but she certainly didn't invent it outright, which is what the Wired article sounds like. Maybe we could have gotten the full story before, but she's dead now, and let the media make a story about it all they want, they always do...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Hey, Linus, thanks for reminding me about the Transmeta(tm) announcement! I know what I'm going to be reading on slashdot tomorrow....
:)
:)
I know enough about trademark law to feel sorry for the man, I'm sure he hates this crap as much as we do. But, it's good to know that "our creator" is looking out for the good name of Linux(tm). And I'm glad religion doesn't work the same way.
Also, now I want to start a yyyy corp and trademark xxxx(tm).
xxxx is a trademark of yyyy.
Neener, neener, profits are for losers... (Dilbert)
All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.