The 2 most obvious problems with the WAVE approach are the profit motives of both the students and the company. Students being rewarded for being anonymous? How does that teach personal responsibility?
What I find even more disturbing is that Pinkerton is a business which means their bottom-line is profit driven. In order for the WAVE to be successful, won't it need to prove itself as being able to determine who the "troublemakers" are - even if none exist? What accountability is there to guarantee that the company isn't going to alter profiles of certain students?
In my opinion, the likelihood of the WAVE being abused by either the students or the company is inevitable.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
...can be really expensive this time of year so anyone who's going might want to consider flying into Providence, Rhode Island through a smaller airline and then renting a car and driving up or, if you know alot of people in Boston, have them pick you up. It's only an hour away.
I'm really tempted to go but I'm already going to be going to Boston later in the summer to visit my grandmother and cousins and old college friends.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Contact Congress information
on
Protesting DMCA
·
· Score: 3
We have to first become politically active. Register to vote, and let your elected reps know how you feel. And then vote against them if and when they screw up.
Go to this web site for an up-to-date database of congressional contact information.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
What would happen if in the first school applied, every student turned in every other student? Or, if 10 anonymous students or so reported on everyone...including themselves?
That's exactly what I was thinking. When I was in highschool, (private catholic all-girls), the administration had a list of the "troublemakers" that included me and various other people. Whenever something bad went down, each of us on the list was brought in for a conference and encouraged to rat upon our peers. If that didn't work, everyone in the school was encouraged at an all school assembly to rat out anyone they knew to be involved.
The funny thing was, no one would rat anyone out. Not even the exclusive rich and popular group, (yes - we had all the standard cliques, even in private school), would try to rat on anyone else. The administration's plan backfired as their plea to have us turn on each other, created moments of solidarity where no one would say anything against anyone.
One time, my entire class was told that we'd all be serving a Saturday all-day detention if someone didn't come forward to point out the guilty students. That Saturday, we all showed up and sat in our seats. We didn't discuss it beforehand or afterwards. It was just understood.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
I, too, was surprised that this did not make any categories. Absolutely brilliant - unique filming and storyline. I saw it in the theaters 3 times and bought the soundtrack immediately after the first viewing. If you can, go see it in a theater. This movie defintely requires a quality surround sound system. - tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Very good point. I am a total music geek, (competed in classical piano in my youth and studied jazz piano in college), and budgeting for music ranks right up there with food. If music were cheaper, I'd spend more than I do now because I'd get more music for my money.
I remember being thoroughly excited when David Bowie released a single exclusively online through N2K Inc., aka owners of Music Boulevard that merged with CDnow in 1999. I thought, this is it, the prices of CD burners are going to come down and soon I'm going to be able to buy music off of the internet directly from the artists and say bye-bye to record company price monopolies that maintain exorbitant CD prices when CDs are actually cheaper to produce than cassette tapes. Yet, that day is still not here because the record companies are making sure it doesn't happen.
I stopped working as a contract Audio Producer for a big company once I discovered the horrifying draconian contracts they were having the artists whose work we recorded and used online sign - the artists had to completely give up all rights to their own work. I mean, all of them as in the company holds all exclusive rights.
Part of the justification for this was because the company didn't want to have to deal with figuring out the royalties of music being accessed online. What if the user doesn't have a sound card or doesn't have their speakers turned up? How do you determine how many people really listened to the music on that page? So the company just followed the lead of the record industry - when in doubt, leave the artist out. Foolishly, I even did some composition work for the company before fully realizing what I had given up. Random note: my manager at the company was incredibly conscientious about seeing that contract artists received proper payment and credit for their work and was constantly struggling to have the contracts changed.
My point, (do I have one?), is that the record companies are not going to give up their monopoly. Furthermore, artists know that record companies have the marketing muscle and radio station influence to get them known and their music heard. And the record companies require that they pay for that influence, dearly. The only real solution is for artists to not go through the major record companies at all and either use smaller labels, like Sub Pop and Peerless Music, or do it themselves.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Rudolph Nureyev, the famous Russian ballet dancer who defected to the West from the Soviet Union in 1961, was the subject of an FBI Espionage investigation in 1964 following the discovery of a cryptic note behind a wall plaque in a California hotel.
Only cryptic to people who can't read Russion.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
It's stories like this that make me beg for a real 3rd party privacy/security group to certify companies.
According to an old salon.com story referenced from the current one being discussed, "David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), thinks that the government -- the Federal Trade Commission, to be specific -- is a more appropriate monitor for the Net."
Would that be better or worse? Technically, that is what the government is for but unfortunately, more often than not, the government goes too far. The other public sector route is a non-profit charitable organization like Epic that relies mainly on donations from private foundations and individual donors which means they have to constantly raise money to maintain their research and legal battles. When it comes down to it, I don't see how a private company could make a real profit by not catering to their members as eTrust does. I'm not saying its excusable, just that I don't think there is any 3rd party privacy/security group that could be objective and profitable.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
..to consumers? It sounds like a good idea but I sense higher pricing during peak hours will be how companies respond to having to share their high-bandwidth frequencies. When in doubt, they always look to suck the consumer dry.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
In order to get feedback from users, you have to get them to use the OS. The only reason they'd have to use an OS is if it ran an application they needed to use. The key is having better - not copycat or similar - office applications on Linux that end-users need.
Case in point: the only reason I use MS Windows at work is because that is what a majority of the people at work use so my hand is forced; however, because MS has such underhanded tactics as not making their office products backwards compatible, there is some discussion about moving away from them given that we, (we being the tech group), have found that open source software is simply easier to maintain. Ergo, it's better.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
"Who owns your genetic information? Might it be the doctors who, in the course of removing your spleen, decode a few cells and turn them into a patented product? In 1990 the Supreme Court of California said yes, marking another milestone on the information superhighway. "
The doctors made millions; the unwitting cell-provider received nothing and was told he had given up his rights to his own genetic material to the doctors. Be very afraid.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
I, too, am thankful for the EFF; however, it's always-having-to-be-on-the-defensive stance is too disturbing. Am I the only one who is weary of the fear and ignorance that drives the government to perpetrate such absurd and egregious acts upon its citizens such as computer raids and passing speech-infringing legislation?
I realize that fullscale revolution to overthrow the oligarchy-masquerading-as-a-democracy under which we currently live is improbable at best, but we are entering a new millenium with fewer rights than previous generations and that's just messed up.
Thanking you in advance for tolerating my pointless ranting.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
I find it really disturbing that there is nothing on IPv6 since that's the only item I could have possibly used to convince my employer to send me to the Netherlands. Rats.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Well, I've had mediocre service at best from Amazon. I ordered a book for a co-worker through Amazon and asked for priority mail (2-3 days) and the book didn't make it until 5 days later. Last year I made a point to order Xmas present books early - within the first week of December - and when I went to check-out, I got a message that told me the database would be down for 10 minutes for backup. I had spent an hour compiling a stack of books to be sent back east and it was gone, just like that. Now, as a database developer, I fully understand the need for backups; however, an etailer like Amazon should never be down and have redundant database servers in place. Having the production database go down during a transaction is inexcusable as far as I'm concerned so you'll have to forgive me for my adamant disgust for a phony like Bezos who has received accolades he so cleary does not deserve.
In addition to Barnes & Noble, from whom I have received adequate service, I have had great experiences with A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books and Powell's Bookstore (the largest used bookstore I've ever been to online and IRL located in Portland, OR) for non-technical books.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
I'm actually surprised that this hasn't happend more IRL with the brick and mortar stores. I figure it's just a matter of time before Virgin or Sony restricts the selling and distribution of the artists they record to their stores.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
D'accord! I am surprised that Katz did not include Government (in general of any country) or Academia (university or grant-sponsored research) as "continental" categories. I would even consider putting Political Activism in its own cateogry as well.
I agree with your rant. I live in San Francisco and am greatly discouraged by the dwindling night life. It is pervasive through every club scene in the city.
I was at the hearing in support of Jamie. Have you actually emailed your rant to Mayor Willie Brown? If not, then please do. I'm sure my email address has been blocked by now given how many rants I've sent him.;)
I am not disagreeing with you, but I do need to point out that for most applications that non-geeks use, GUI is a MUST these days.
Oh, of course. I know that. There are some applications that I like using the GUI and others where I find command-line is much, much easier. Now, I use command-line first and then go to the GUI second so when something in the GUI doesn't work, I know where to look for it via command-line. Mind you, my command-line skills are only okay, though, I am being sent to UNIX sys admin school next month, (yeeaah!), and will be undergoing training by the current sys admin so that should improve them immensely. Still, I'll take command-line sql*plus over any database developer tools any day.
In regards to GUI, I think option A would be ideal thus, it will never come into existence.;)
The fundamental problem is poor software design. Properly designed software should have a generic interface that provides...
I agree completely; however, the operative word in your very well-written reply is should. It has been my experience that alot of the software does not provide the flexibility that it should. For example, I've had to administer an encrypted MTA server. You can access the main admin console via command line or GUI. In training, I chose command line and the other guy there chose GUI. I was able to connect directly to the other guy's MTA and bring it down through command line. He could connect to me directly but couldn't figure out how I was able to bring his MTA down. Most people who use this MTA server prefer the GUI and that distresses me.
I realize this isn't so much related to Linux and that I'm getting off-topic and for that I apologize. I'm just frustrated by the paranoia about command-line interface. I realize GUI shouldn't be a liability but sometimes software isn't designed as it should be. While the core of the operating system may stay secure, having the software continually crash because of a poor GUI is not what I consider efficient use of the core's processes.
I'm constantly struggling to keep up on everything and to learn more than the meager amount that I do know. I have a manager who is continually authorizing software purchases because the GUI made it all look so easy to use, only for me to find that the GUI causes more problems than it's worth. When I switch to a better software program whose source code I can poke at and access via command-line, I have to be on the defensive even though I'm not trying to cause problems, just use the best solution. It's frustrating.
...is really starting to grate on me. Of course we all know making Linux more accessible to the average user is important but there are drawbacks to accessibility.
The more you layer GUI on top of the system, the more you clutter its ability to process efficiently and security is more easily compromised. Windows has and continues to prove that fact over and over again. I wish Linus had touched upon that issue a bit more so that the general non-tech business community might have more of an understanding as to why GUI interfaces are not readily embraced by techs as they often require more maintenance and cause more problems.
Sometimes I even think business people are paranoid that techs are plotting some conspiracy to make their lives more difficult by choosing certain technology when we're just trying to find the best solution.
Or have I just been out-of-the-loop on the conspiracy thing? Was there a meeting I missed?
Before you start to panic, please take a moment to read about the Fair Use Doctrine which allows for free appropriation of content in certain cases of parody, commentary and academic research.
I am relieved that Linus is taken steps to protect the Linux trademark so that it is not being misrepresented. Can you imagine the damage it would do to the credibility of Linux, and the open source movement in general, if the only information that someone found on Linux was incorrect because somebody threw up a domain with the word Linux in it to try to catch the ipo craze like LinuxOne has?
I'd trust Linus to keep himself in check in regards to the fairness with which he applies trademark restrictions more than many other huge companies. Have some faith.
When I was in college, I used VAX machines at the computer center for email and to work on my programming assignments. My roommate had a Brother typewriter, one of the really cool ones that had an LED display and would allow you to save your data to disk so that you could take it to the computer center, and stand in line for the printer station and print it out. Almost nobody have their own computer, let alone net access.
I did have it a bit easier since the Computer Center staff extended a certain favoritism to other geeks.
And I had to walk uphill in snow alot - really, I went to college in Boston.;]
I am more intrigued by schools that have wireless LANs that allow you to be anywhere on campus with a laptop and hook up to the network - an edge for schools that don't have the coveted Ivy status. I especially like it because it allows for the convenience of technology without the isolation from socialization which I think makes up for the lack of speed in comparison to DSL, (I have a wireless modem on my laptop).
Either way, internet access does and will continue to raise interesting implications in regards to how a university is rated. Maybe the demand and competitiveness for Ivy league schools will be superseded by a demand for Wired schools?
Market forces should have dictated a long time ago that CDs should be way cheaper, yet strangely they're not.
To expand on your point, it is in fact cheaper for recording companies to produce CDs than cassette tapes. They justify the higher price tag because CDs don't degrade in quality with each play as cassette tapes do. Of course, that doesn't really blur the reality that the record companies have engaged in price-fixing for years since, in addition to CDs costing less then cassettes, they can also fit alot more music on CDs but don't.
I, too, am holding out for a stored digital format. I've looked at mini-discs since Denon now has a dual mini-disc component that can copy disc-to-disc in pure digital format with song title information display, allow you to change the order of songs on the disc in addition to endless reusability by deleting and re-recording.
Slashdot Mirror
What I find even more disturbing is that Pinkerton is a business which means their bottom-line is profit driven. In order for the WAVE to be successful, won't it need to prove itself as being able to determine who the "troublemakers" are - even if none exist? What accountability is there to guarantee that the company isn't going to alter profiles of certain students?
In my opinion, the likelihood of the WAVE being abused by either the students or the company is inevitable.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
I'm really tempted to go but I'm already going to be going to Boston later in the summer to visit my grandmother and cousins and old college friends.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Go to this web site for an up-to-date database of congressional contact information.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
That's exactly what I was thinking. When I was in highschool, (private catholic all-girls), the administration had a list of the "troublemakers" that included me and various other people. Whenever something bad went down, each of us on the list was brought in for a conference and encouraged to rat upon our peers. If that didn't work, everyone in the school was encouraged at an all school assembly to rat out anyone they knew to be involved.
The funny thing was, no one would rat anyone out. Not even the exclusive rich and popular group, (yes - we had all the standard cliques, even in private school), would try to rat on anyone else. The administration's plan backfired as their plea to have us turn on each other, created moments of solidarity where no one would say anything against anyone.
One time, my entire class was told that we'd all be serving a Saturday all-day detention if someone didn't come forward to point out the guilty students. That Saturday, we all showed up and sat in our seats. We didn't discuss it beforehand or afterwards. It was just understood.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
I, too, was surprised that this did not make any categories. Absolutely brilliant - unique filming and storyline. I saw it in the theaters 3 times and bought the soundtrack immediately after the first viewing. If you can, go see it in a theater. This movie defintely requires a quality surround sound system. - tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
I remember being thoroughly excited when David Bowie released a single exclusively online through N2K Inc., aka owners of Music Boulevard that merged with CDnow in 1999. I thought, this is it, the prices of CD burners are going to come down and soon I'm going to be able to buy music off of the internet directly from the artists and say bye-bye to record company price monopolies that maintain exorbitant CD prices when CDs are actually cheaper to produce than cassette tapes. Yet, that day is still not here because the record companies are making sure it doesn't happen.
I stopped working as a contract Audio Producer for a big company once I discovered the horrifying draconian contracts they were having the artists whose work we recorded and used online sign - the artists had to completely give up all rights to their own work. I mean, all of them as in the company holds all exclusive rights.
Part of the justification for this was because the company didn't want to have to deal with figuring out the royalties of music being accessed online. What if the user doesn't have a sound card or doesn't have their speakers turned up? How do you determine how many people really listened to the music on that page? So the company just followed the lead of the record industry - when in doubt, leave the artist out. Foolishly, I even did some composition work for the company before fully realizing what I had given up. Random note: my manager at the company was incredibly conscientious about seeing that contract artists received proper payment and credit for their work and was constantly struggling to have the contracts changed.
My point, (do I have one?), is that the record companies are not going to give up their monopoly. Furthermore, artists know that record companies have the marketing muscle and radio station influence to get them known and their music heard. And the record companies require that they pay for that influence, dearly. The only real solution is for artists to not go through the major record companies at all and either use smaller labels, like Sub Pop and Peerless Music, or do it themselves.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Only cryptic to people who can't read Russion.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
According to an old salon.com story referenced from the current one being discussed, "David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), thinks that the government -- the Federal Trade Commission, to be specific -- is a more appropriate monitor for the Net."
Would that be better or worse? Technically, that is what the government is for but unfortunately, more often than not, the government goes too far. The other public sector route is a non-profit charitable organization like Epic that relies mainly on donations from private foundations and individual donors which means they have to constantly raise money to maintain their research and legal battles. When it comes down to it, I don't see how a private company could make a real profit by not catering to their members as eTrust does. I'm not saying its excusable, just that I don't think there is any 3rd party privacy/security group that could be objective and profitable.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Case in point: the only reason I use MS Windows at work is because that is what a majority of the people at work use so my hand is forced; however, because MS has such underhanded tactics as not making their office products backwards compatible, there is some discussion about moving away from them given that we, (we being the tech group), have found that open source software is simply easier to maintain. Ergo, it's better.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Answer: NO.
In the book Shamans, Software, and Spleens: Law and the Construction of the Information Society , the author, James Boyle, discusses this very issue. An excerpt from the beginning of the book:
The doctors made millions; the unwitting cell-provider received nothing and was told he had given up his rights to his own genetic material to the doctors. Be very afraid.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
I realize that fullscale revolution to overthrow the oligarchy-masquerading-as-a-democracy under which we currently live is improbable at best, but we are entering a new millenium with fewer rights than previous generations and that's just messed up.
Thanking you in advance for tolerating my pointless ranting.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
In addition to Barnes & Noble, from whom I have received adequate service, I have had great experiences with A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books and Powell's Bookstore (the largest used bookstore I've ever been to online and IRL located in Portland, OR) for non-technical books.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
tokengeekgrrl
I was at the hearing in support of Jamie. Have you actually emailed your rant to Mayor Willie Brown? If not, then please do. I'm sure my email address has been blocked by now given how many rants I've sent him. ;)
- tokengeekgrrl
Oh, of course. I know that. There are some applications that I like using the GUI and others where I find command-line is much, much easier. Now, I use command-line first and then go to the GUI second so when something in the GUI doesn't work, I know where to look for it via command-line. Mind you, my command-line skills are only okay, though, I am being sent to UNIX sys admin school next month, (yeeaah!), and will be undergoing training by the current sys admin so that should improve them immensely. Still, I'll take command-line sql*plus over any database developer tools any day.
In regards to GUI, I think option A would be ideal thus, it will never come into existence. ;)
- tokengeekgrrl
I agree completely; however, the operative word in your very well-written reply is should. It has been my experience that alot of the software does not provide the flexibility that it should. For example, I've had to administer an encrypted MTA server. You can access the main admin console via command line or GUI. In training, I chose command line and the other guy there chose GUI. I was able to connect directly to the other guy's MTA and bring it down through command line. He could connect to me directly but couldn't figure out how I was able to bring his MTA down. Most people who use this MTA server prefer the GUI and that distresses me.
I realize this isn't so much related to Linux and that I'm getting off-topic and for that I apologize. I'm just frustrated by the paranoia about command-line interface. I realize GUI shouldn't be a liability but sometimes software isn't designed as it should be. While the core of the operating system may stay secure, having the software continually crash because of a poor GUI is not what I consider efficient use of the core's processes.
I'm constantly struggling to keep up on everything and to learn more than the meager amount that I do know. I have a manager who is continually authorizing software purchases because the GUI made it all look so easy to use, only for me to find that the GUI causes more problems than it's worth. When I switch to a better software program whose source code I can poke at and access via command-line, I have to be on the defensive even though I'm not trying to cause problems, just use the best solution. It's frustrating.
Sorry for the rant.
- tokengeekgrrl
- tokengeekgrrl
The more you layer GUI on top of the system, the more you clutter its ability to process efficiently and security is more easily compromised. Windows has and continues to prove that fact over and over again. I wish Linus had touched upon that issue a bit more so that the general non-tech business community might have more of an understanding as to why GUI interfaces are not readily embraced by techs as they often require more maintenance and cause more problems.
Sometimes I even think business people are paranoid that techs are plotting some conspiracy to make their lives more difficult by choosing certain technology when we're just trying to find the best solution.
Or have I just been out-of-the-loop on the conspiracy thing? Was there a meeting I missed?
- tokengeekgrrl
I am relieved that Linus is taken steps to protect the Linux trademark so that it is not being misrepresented. Can you imagine the damage it would do to the credibility of Linux, and the open source movement in general, if the only information that someone found on Linux was incorrect because somebody threw up a domain with the word Linux in it to try to catch the ipo craze like LinuxOne has?
I'd trust Linus to keep himself in check in regards to the fairness with which he applies trademark restrictions more than many other huge companies. Have some faith.
- tokengeekgrrl
I did have it a bit easier since the Computer Center staff extended a certain favoritism to other geeks.
And I had to walk uphill in snow alot - really, I went to college in Boston. ;]
- tokengeekgrrl
Either way, internet access does and will continue to raise interesting implications in regards to how a university is rated. Maybe the demand and competitiveness for Ivy league schools will be superseded by a demand for Wired schools?
Regards.
- tokengeekgrrl
To expand on your point, it is in fact cheaper for recording companies to produce CDs than cassette tapes. They justify the higher price tag because CDs don't degrade in quality with each play as cassette tapes do. Of course, that doesn't really blur the reality that the record companies have engaged in price-fixing for years since, in addition to CDs costing less then cassettes, they can also fit alot more music on CDs but don't.
I, too, am holding out for a stored digital format. I've looked at mini-discs since Denon now has a dual mini-disc component that can copy disc-to-disc in pure digital format with song title information display, allow you to change the order of songs on the disc in addition to endless reusability by deleting and re-recording.
Regards.
- tokengeekgrrl