I have to admit, my perspective is a bit skewed due to the fact that I was never privied to be able to use high end Macs of the time, so I was generally very frustrated by the useability problems that came with using already out-of-date hardware with software made for people who paid more for their machines. I mostly dealt with Macintoshes at my elementary school and at the College my father works at. Both are poorly funded, so their systems were not the best.
My first (and only, because of it) Macintosh was a Mac LC. As I mentioned in another post, I will never forgive Apple for that piece of crap. I'm sure most knowledgeable Mac users know how horribly underpowered this system was from the get-go. The SE/30 was a far better machine despite being older than the LC, though the LC (Low-Cost, hah) was the only Mac that fit my parent's budget at the time. Though for $2500 we could have gotten a damn good PC, but because stupid Humboldt State University used Macs, my computer illiterate parents assumed that they would need a Mac as well (actually that wasn't so bad of an assumption since Windows->Mac compatibility has always been decent, but Mac->Windows... well, you know). The sad thing is that the only files they dealt with were Microsoft Word and Excel documents...
So I guess the moral of my story is that, while you may be correct in your opinion that Apple has always catered well to customers with older hardware, the fact is that apple payed little courtesy to those not buying high end systems, and that is what really irked me about them (that and being forced to use an LC for 5 years... FRUSTRATION@$@#$@#!).
First off, Apple is very good at making sure their new OS's will run at useable speeds on older machines.
I have to disagree with you there. Think about Macs that shipped with OS 6. You've got to be a fool to run OS 7 on them, though you must to use newer programs. 7 to 8 wasn't so bad because there was not much changed (as compared to the assembly written OS6 -> C written OS 7), but upgrading or at least beefing up your system was necessary for it to be useable. 8/9 -> X seemed suprisingly to be their most graceful upgrade. Granted I have little experience with Macintoshes since OS 7, but it seems that Apple at least has their heads partway out of their asses when it comes to making software useable on what you currently have rather than forcing you to buy what their selling now to run anything newer than what your computer came with.
Remember this is Joe Blow User you're talking about. Of course he's not going to look more closely at the installation options next time, he will just bitch at his computer-literate friend that his "music stuff" isn't working, (acting as if it's inherently his friend's fault since, if he knows all about computers, how could he let this atrocity happen?) until said friend fixes it for him, and Joe Blow will promptly forget what was done and how (if he even payed attention in the first place) so that he can repeat the mistake verbatim the next time he installs a program. And the poor computer literate friend finds himself increasingly distancing himself from his Joe Blow User friends in an attempt to escape the strange phenomenon that whenever a semi-intelligent mammal gets near a computer he/she becomes a complete moron capable of no logical reasoning whatsoever.
if there's 10 or 12 songs I like where the rest of the album's trash (i.e. just about everything released these days) then let me just buy those songs.
This is the reason record companies DON'T want people getting ahold of mp3's of their latest corporate-whore musical endeavor. Generally with pop groups these days they only bother writing and marketing one good song for the current teeny-pop group in the hopes that people will either buy a shitload of singles at $10 each, or be stupid enough to buy an album of filler plus that one song they like for $20.
of course this has been a tactic for a long time, even with groups that were not created for the sole intention of teen popularity and revenue. For example, how many people bought Pink Floyd's The Wall only to find that the one song they had heard on the radio (Another Brick in the Wall Part II) was comparatively one of the WORST songs on the album? This is because their record label, knowing that this would be a hit album due to just name recognition alone, instructed the group that they wanted The Wall to include a "Poppy disco tune" that would get them radio play. Thus was born a catchy, instant hit that is the comlete opposite to Mason's excellent manic drumming style and Gilmour's intricate guitar work. Not to say it isn't a good song (It is The Pink Floyd after all), but it is definitely a record label attempt at whoring out this group's double LP concept album as a profit machine.
For one thing the post seems rather incredulous due to the fact that the author's knowledge of Linux, Open Source (or OSDN as he likes to call it), and computers in general varies from decent to, well...
I called AOL to have them send me a Linux version
yeah.
i excitedly bought Corel Linux Delux with Wordperfect for 79.99 at CompUSA
hmm.... signs of trouble emerging...
And just to throw in a final little tidbit:
Microsoft made a standard, and it prevented me from the hassles of Linux and hardware, maybe the OSDN should work on Plug and Play in the OS
basically my thought was that this was either a really funny joke, or a REALLY confused person. I mean who the hell just goes out and starts throwing money around and blames it on his operating system? looks like He's "out" $500 on a printer and video card he already owns, because he decided to try Linux.
Ok, I just realized I wasted way to much of my time explaining this. Yes I was a bit harsh, (that last line was a paraphrase of a line out of From Dusk Till Dawn) but sadly I have little sympathy for stupidity/ignorance these days when getting information is as simple as typing a word into a little box at google.com.
*THUD*
(The sound of me laughing so hard I fall out of my chair)
That has to be one of the funniest posts I have EVER read on Slashdot. I could point out all of the obviously ridiculous errors and silliness in this post, but I'm fairly sure this was written as a joke, and to dissect it in a serious manner would destroy its novelty.
If this is real, then I pity you with all of my heart, and can only say that there is a peace in death that life cannot provide for you.
If you're not using Windows, a 400 Mhz computer works great. My home computer is a pentium II 400, and I really have no need for upgrading it. Granted, I use Linux (though I still have windows 98 which runs. Sometimes.), but if cost is a big issue, then obviously the best plan would be the free one right? Not only would you not have to buy new equipment, but you get a better, more stable network environment. Obviously deploying Linux or some other free OS on a previously Windows network is not as easy as it sounds (depending on what software you need to run, how easily the users can adjust to not having their "friendly" os, and other factors), but it is something to think about if times are tough.
On a side note, I'd be glad to take those 60 "outdated" systems off your hands if you really are just aching to upgrade...
for simple problems, at least, Palm is great. I emailed their tech support with a simple problem (I believe it was even in the FAQ, whoops). I recieved an immediate autoresponse email saying "you will be contacted by a tech support representative within the next 48 hours, blah blah" so I figured I would wait a few days and see what happened. I didn't expect a quick reply since it was a Sunday. Well 5 hours later, I got a reply that totally explained my problem. my m100 worked fine with jpilot until the first time I used palm's windows software. I figured it was some weird hardware thing because the reason I got the m100 was because it would no longer sync on his computer using palm's software and neither he nor their tech support could figure it out, and he just didn't wasnt to deal with it. He gave it to me and it worked fine in linux, so I was happy. As it turns out, what I had not noticed is that palm's syncing software messes with the baud rate set on the palm without telling the user, so it obviously wouldn't work in jpilot anymore since the baud rates were now different. I'm really not sure why it stopped working in windows as well, but lets just say it works now, and Palm's tech support was both helpful and quick, something many other companies could learn from. I almost felt embarrased by how concerned they were with my problem, I'm really not used to a large mega-corporation caring about a single user in the least. They sent me a customer service satisfaction survey as well asking questions like what method of contact do I prefer best (usually phone, but email is fine when dealing with Palm), and others that gave me the impression the company is really trying to get their reputation up as a good support providing company.
but what is the value of intellectual property when the property in question holds no intellectual value...
fortunately most modern music that holds any glimmer of intelligence and meaning can be bought on vinyl from independent record companies outside of the U.S. If I really want it on cd -- record, remaster, burn. Whoopee.
Funny, up until now I associated the letters BSA with the Boy Scouts of America, not those scum. Sounds like the boy scouts need to whoop some Business Software Alliance ass and take back their name (or rather, their acronym).
This happened to one of my mother's friends several years ago. Not only was he sued, harassed, and threatened, the CoS strongarmed several anonymous remailers and ISPs to unlawfully release information so they could trace the usenet postings back to him. Pretty dirty shit, I believe they even went as far as harassing his son. more information can be found here,
it is amazing the lengths that these science fiction drones will go to in order to keep their "religion" so secret.
I might point out that you are entirely wrong. If you've ever actually LOOKED at a commercial product that was grown organically, on it will be a phrase "grown and processed in accordance with the California Organic Foods act of 1990" or similar for whatever state your in. yep, Sounds pretty hazardous and unregulated to me. Also having worked on an organic farm, wallowing knee-deep in your so-called biohazardous materials with nothing more that a pair of shoes (sometimes not even that) between me and that horrible "organic filth" we call dirt, I can only hope that the people reading your post are intelligent enough to know your full of shit, most likely a crop duster in real life....
so basically all I'm trying to say is, fuck you. Anyone can moderate with one account and then reply as an AC, so don't think you're too clever, little child.
instead of wasting money and resources so we can still poison our food and land, why not try supporting ORGANIC FARMING!? It's a good idea to cut down on the amount of pesticides and herbicides that go into our food, but it's a much better idea to stop altogether.
Of course, his novels were written before World War II, but his books have been the inspiration for many scientific advances. One example that comes to mind is 20,000 Leagues under the sea, which describes in detail a nuclear powered submarine long before submarines or nuclear fission was ever used. In fact, if I recall correctly, the first U.S. submarine was named the Nautilus in tribute to Captain Nemo's ship.
And Fallout 1, I would suspect. I've never played the first game but the second one is based from the plot of the first, so I kind of know what it was about. The reason fallout 2 has such a great plot is because you are given the goal of the game (save your village), and you fill in the plot yourself.
Sorry, I didn't write it, but you can find it at: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/legislation/dmca.pdf.
truly a frightening tale of paranormal ignorance and oppression, the likes of which we would never see in this sane, wonderful country, right?
accidentally modded your post to -1 (Troll) when I thought is was +1 (Funny).. sorry, I think I remember from somewhere that posting will remove any moderation I've done so maybe this will work
Most of the posts have been focusing on ways to get people to pay for content either already available on the site, or for some added goodies. I think a much better plan than just charging for functionality or information is to think up something tangible that people want to buy (this might get in the way of ThinkGeek, but oh well). Zophar's Domain tried this recently by opening the "ZD Store" from where they sell video games and accessories. This store is pretty much run by one person from his home, and they seem to be generating some decent revenue. This is because they have been able to sell their goods at same as retail or even a little cheaper, and their users would much rather spend the same amount of money or less, and at the same time support a good web site, instead of supporting a shitty retail chain like circuit city or worst buy.
So I guess what the people at slashdot need to do is figure out what we want to buy from them (and there's only one way to find that out, isn't there? tell them!). Maybe something like "type up a letter to someone in the US government regarding (insert current way we are being fucked over) and for 5 bucks slashdot will snail mail it to them." Not only do you support slashdot, you support its cause, and you never even have to get your ass out of your chair.
they could also sell standard stuff like T-Shirts (I'd buy a "Fuck the RIAA!" (or DMCA,MPAA,SSSCA, whatever) shirt), pins, mugs, bumper stickers, whatever else you people tend to waste your excess money on.
another idea is to donate money to slashdot to keep them running, and slashdot will donate a portion of that to various organizations like the ACLU, etc.
just a few thoughts that might be helpful, I figured they were much needed since other slashdotters tend to enjoy bitching about this well maintained, FREE ACCESS web site than thinking up ways to keep it going.
The virtual child pornography issue seems a little strange... The reason real child pornography is illegal is because the actual aquiring of child porn pictures/videos requires someone to have sex with a real live 8 year old (or whatever age John Q. Pedophile likes), which is harmful to the child, not to mention illegal in itself. By using a 3d modelling program, you remove the whole "real live child" part, thus making it so nothing illegal has been done to aquire this footage or image.
I'm sure the supreme court will argue that simulated child pornography will raise the child molestation rates, but it seems more logical that it will have the same effect as regular porn. That is, a pedophile looks up some fake kiddie porn on the net, jerks off and forgets about it (I'm not really sure if there are any statistics to back the claim that legal porn lowers the amount of rapes in this country, but again, it seems logical that it would).
`"it is important that web sites are secure from unauthorized access and that intellectual property is protected. Cyberspace will be a better place for all if such privacy and property rights are respected," stated Assistant United States Attorney Jeff Gallant.'
Also from the release:
"Using MS Front Page, defendant discovered a common security flaw between MS Front Page and MS Internet Information Server (IIS), the server software being run by
PDNS."
So tell me why Microsoft is not facing misdemeanor (or felony) charges instead of the user that was clever enough to discover yet another innovative, undocumented feature in the software..
Since the DoJ is obviously committed to making sure "that web sites are secure from unauthorized access and that intellectual property is protected," they'd better throw the FBI at any average citizen that is smart enough to research the (in)security of the software that they use, instead of targeting the company that is more concerned with taking your money than making sure it actually works.
And let me tell you, purple potatoes are by far some of the best. They don't stay purple when you cook them, they turn blue, but it makes for nice blue mashed potatoes. I find it strange that when the commercial (chemical farming) market finds out about something organic farmers have grown for years everyone is like "oh boy, somebody invented a new GM food!"
Hopefully someday people will begin to realize that not only is organic food good for you (i.e. doesn't contain horrible pesticides and herbicides), but it tastes MUCH BETTER than conventional farmed food, because and organic farmer's selling point is quality, not quantity. Conventional produce is almost always GM, chemical fed, and pumped so full of water that you can't even taste it anymore.
If you live in (or visit) Arcata, CA (Humboldt County), go to farmers market on Saturdays and buy some purple potatoes from Warren Creek Farms. You'll never eat conventional farmed crap again.
It didn't help me in the sense that it kept me away from drugs, if that is the question, but it did help me realize the ridiculousness of our government and society's "justifications" for
their war on drugs. Even back when DARE was being forced down my throat in 6th grade, a time when I had not even tried drugs yet, more or less heard of most of them, It infuriated me that they felt they had the right to tell me what I was allowed to do with my body, something that didn't affect them in any way, yet they still felt the need to force their beliefs upon me just like every other traditional load of bullshit that has been barraged upon me from day 1.
Our governments insistance on interfering with every single personal issue in our lives has always pissed me off, and I'm not going to take their bullshit anymore. Instead of playing the guilty part and letting the government continue to oppress people for things that they want to do to themselves, people need to take a stand and fight back against this ridiculous puritan system.
Anyway, I guess I'll turn off my rant mode now, but I believe that this is something that really needs to be changed, and soon.
I saw these being demoed at Defcon in the CTF area, and I was quite impressed by the size but I can't see how they justify the price of these, unless they come with the flatscreen LCD that was being used for the demo, but still.. I don't quite see any reason why someone would want to spend this much on a 486sx, regardless of size.
So does the 4.0.1 release fix this? I was a little disgruntled when I got xf4.0 and could not find any way to get it to work... Which I thought was my fault but I guess not.
I wonder if the xfree86.tgz in slackware 7.1 includes this hack for voodoo3's or not.. It certainly would be convenient to just get the xf86 and 3dfx specific tgz's from ftp.slackware.com, but considering how infamous slackware is for upgrading, maybe that isn't such a good idea.
Slashdot Mirror
My first (and only, because of it) Macintosh was a Mac LC. As I mentioned in another post, I will never forgive Apple for that piece of crap. I'm sure most knowledgeable Mac users know how horribly underpowered this system was from the get-go. The SE/30 was a far better machine despite being older than the LC, though the LC (Low-Cost, hah) was the only Mac that fit my parent's budget at the time. Though for $2500 we could have gotten a damn good PC, but because stupid Humboldt State University used Macs, my computer illiterate parents assumed that they would need a Mac as well (actually that wasn't so bad of an assumption since Windows->Mac compatibility has always been decent, but Mac->Windows... well, you know). The sad thing is that the only files they dealt with were Microsoft Word and Excel documents...
So I guess the moral of my story is that, while you may be correct in your opinion that Apple has always catered well to customers with older hardware, the fact is that apple payed little courtesy to those not buying high end systems, and that is what really irked me about them (that and being forced to use an LC for 5 years... FRUSTRATION@$@#$@#!).
First off, Apple is very good at making sure their new OS's will run at useable speeds on older machines.
I have to disagree with you there. Think about Macs that shipped with OS 6. You've got to be a fool to run OS 7 on them, though you must to use newer programs. 7 to 8 wasn't so bad because there was not much changed (as compared to the assembly written OS6 -> C written OS 7), but upgrading or at least beefing up your system was necessary for it to be useable. 8/9 -> X seemed suprisingly to be their most graceful upgrade. Granted I have little experience with Macintoshes since OS 7, but it seems that Apple at least has their heads partway out of their asses when it comes to making software useable on what you currently have rather than forcing you to buy what their selling now to run anything newer than what your computer came with.
Remember this is Joe Blow User you're talking about. Of course he's not going to look more closely at the installation options next time, he will just bitch at his computer-literate friend that his "music stuff" isn't working, (acting as if it's inherently his friend's fault since, if he knows all about computers, how could he let this atrocity happen?) until said friend fixes it for him, and Joe Blow will promptly forget what was done and how (if he even payed attention in the first place) so that he can repeat the mistake verbatim the next time he installs a program. And the poor computer literate friend finds himself increasingly distancing himself from his Joe Blow User friends in an attempt to escape the strange phenomenon that whenever a semi-intelligent mammal gets near a computer he/she becomes a complete moron capable of no logical reasoning whatsoever.
sigh...
if there's 10 or 12 songs I like where the rest of the album's trash (i.e. just about everything released these days) then let me just buy those songs.
This is the reason record companies DON'T want people getting ahold of mp3's of their latest corporate-whore musical endeavor. Generally with pop groups these days they only bother writing and marketing one good song for the current teeny-pop group in the hopes that people will either buy a shitload of singles at $10 each, or be stupid enough to buy an album of filler plus that one song they like for $20.
of course this has been a tactic for a long time, even with groups that were not created for the sole intention of teen popularity and revenue. For example, how many people bought Pink Floyd's The Wall only to find that the one song they had heard on the radio (Another Brick in the Wall Part II) was comparatively one of the WORST songs on the album? This is because their record label, knowing that this would be a hit album due to just name recognition alone, instructed the group that they wanted The Wall to include a "Poppy disco tune" that would get them radio play. Thus was born a catchy, instant hit that is the comlete opposite to Mason's excellent manic drumming style and Gilmour's intricate guitar work. Not to say it isn't a good song (It is The Pink Floyd after all), but it is definitely a record label attempt at whoring out this group's double LP concept album as a profit machine.
ok, well I'll explain myself a little...
For one thing the post seems rather incredulous due to the fact that the author's knowledge of Linux, Open Source (or OSDN as he likes to call it), and computers in general varies from decent to, well...
I called AOL to have them send me a Linux version
yeah.
i excitedly bought Corel Linux Delux with Wordperfect for 79.99 at CompUSA
hmm.... signs of trouble emerging...
And just to throw in a final little tidbit:
Microsoft made a standard, and it prevented me from the hassles of Linux and hardware, maybe the OSDN should work on Plug and Play in the OS
basically my thought was that this was either a really funny joke, or a REALLY confused person. I mean who the hell just goes out and starts throwing money around and blames it on his operating system? looks like He's "out" $500 on a printer and video card he already owns, because he decided to try Linux.
Ok, I just realized I wasted way to much of my time explaining this. Yes I was a bit harsh, (that last line was a paraphrase of a line out of From Dusk Till Dawn) but sadly I have little sympathy for stupidity/ignorance these days when getting information is as simple as typing a word into a little box at google.com.
*THUD*
(The sound of me laughing so hard I fall out of my chair)
That has to be one of the funniest posts I have EVER read on Slashdot. I could point out all of the obviously ridiculous errors and silliness in this post, but I'm fairly sure this was written as a joke, and to dissect it in a serious manner would destroy its novelty.
If this is real, then I pity you with all of my heart, and can only say that there is a peace in death that life cannot provide for you.
I concur. I have no idea what the hell he just said, and I'm beginning to be thankful for that.
If you're not using Windows, a 400 Mhz computer works great. My home computer is a pentium II 400, and I really have no need for upgrading it. Granted, I use Linux (though I still have windows 98 which runs. Sometimes.), but if cost is a big issue, then obviously the best plan would be the free one right? Not only would you not have to buy new equipment, but you get a better, more stable network environment. Obviously deploying Linux or some other free OS on a previously Windows network is not as easy as it sounds (depending on what software you need to run, how easily the users can adjust to not having their "friendly" os, and other factors), but it is something to think about if times are tough.
On a side note, I'd be glad to take those 60 "outdated" systems off your hands if you really are just aching to upgrade...
for simple problems, at least, Palm is great. I emailed their tech support with a simple problem (I believe it was even in the FAQ, whoops). I recieved an immediate autoresponse email saying "you will be contacted by a tech support representative within the next 48 hours, blah blah" so I figured I would wait a few days and see what happened. I didn't expect a quick reply since it was a Sunday. Well 5 hours later, I got a reply that totally explained my problem. my m100 worked fine with jpilot until the first time I used palm's windows software. I figured it was some weird hardware thing because the reason I got the m100 was because it would no longer sync on his computer using palm's software and neither he nor their tech support could figure it out, and he just didn't wasnt to deal with it. He gave it to me and it worked fine in linux, so I was happy. As it turns out, what I had not noticed is that palm's syncing software messes with the baud rate set on the palm without telling the user, so it obviously wouldn't work in jpilot anymore since the baud rates were now different. I'm really not sure why it stopped working in windows as well, but lets just say it works now, and Palm's tech support was both helpful and quick, something many other companies could learn from. I almost felt embarrased by how concerned they were with my problem, I'm really not used to a large mega-corporation caring about a single user in the least. They sent me a customer service satisfaction survey as well asking questions like what method of contact do I prefer best (usually phone, but email is fine when dealing with Palm), and others that gave me the impression the company is really trying to get their reputation up as a good support providing company.
but what is the value of intellectual property when the property in question holds no intellectual value...
fortunately most modern music that holds any glimmer of intelligence and meaning can be bought on vinyl from independent record companies outside of the U.S. If I really want it on cd -- record, remaster, burn. Whoopee.
Funny, up until now I associated the letters BSA with the Boy Scouts of America, not those scum. Sounds like the boy scouts need to whoop some Business Software Alliance ass and take back their name (or rather, their acronym).
This happened to one of my mother's friends several years ago. Not only was he sued, harassed, and threatened, the CoS strongarmed several anonymous remailers and ISPs to unlawfully release information so they could trace the usenet postings back to him. Pretty dirty shit, I believe they even went as far as harassing his son. more information can be found here, it is amazing the lengths that these science fiction drones will go to in order to keep their "religion" so secret.
I might point out that you are entirely wrong. If you've ever actually LOOKED at a commercial product that was grown organically, on it will be a phrase "grown and processed in accordance with the California Organic Foods act of 1990" or similar for whatever state your in. yep, Sounds pretty hazardous and unregulated to me. Also having worked on an organic farm, wallowing knee-deep in your so-called biohazardous materials with nothing more that a pair of shoes (sometimes not even that) between me and that horrible "organic filth" we call dirt, I can only hope that the people reading your post are intelligent enough to know your full of shit, most likely a crop duster in real life....
so basically all I'm trying to say is, fuck you. Anyone can moderate with one account and then reply as an AC, so don't think you're too clever, little child.
instead of wasting money and resources so we can still poison our food and land, why not try supporting ORGANIC FARMING!? It's a good idea to cut down on the amount of pesticides and herbicides that go into our food, but it's a much better idea to stop altogether.
Of course, his novels were written before World War II, but his books have been the inspiration for many scientific advances. One example that comes to mind is 20,000 Leagues under the sea, which describes in detail a nuclear powered submarine long before submarines or nuclear fission was ever used. In fact, if I recall correctly, the first U.S. submarine was named the Nautilus in tribute to Captain Nemo's ship.
And Fallout 1, I would suspect. I've never played the first game but the second one is based from the plot of the first, so I kind of know what it was about. The reason fallout 2 has such a great plot is because you are given the goal of the game (save your village), and you fill in the plot yourself.
Sorry, I didn't write it, but you can find it at: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/legislation/dmca.pdf.
truly a frightening tale of paranormal ignorance and oppression, the likes of which we would never see in this sane, wonderful country, right?
accidentally modded your post to -1 (Troll) when I thought is was +1 (Funny).. sorry, I think I remember from somewhere that posting will remove any moderation I've done so maybe this will work
Most of the posts have been focusing on ways to get people to pay for content either already available on the site, or for some added goodies. I think a much better plan than just charging for functionality or information is to think up something tangible that people want to buy (this might get in the way of ThinkGeek, but oh well). Zophar's Domain tried this recently by opening the "ZD Store" from where they sell video games and accessories. This store is pretty much run by one person from his home, and they seem to be generating some decent revenue. This is because they have been able to sell their goods at same as retail or even a little cheaper, and their users would much rather spend the same amount of money or less, and at the same time support a good web site, instead of supporting a shitty retail chain like circuit city or worst buy.
So I guess what the people at slashdot need to do is figure out what we want to buy from them (and there's only one way to find that out, isn't there? tell them!). Maybe something like "type up a letter to someone in the US government regarding (insert current way we are being fucked over) and for 5 bucks slashdot will snail mail it to them." Not only do you support slashdot, you support its cause, and you never even have to get your ass out of your chair.
they could also sell standard stuff like T-Shirts (I'd buy a "Fuck the RIAA!" (or DMCA,MPAA,SSSCA, whatever) shirt), pins, mugs, bumper stickers, whatever else you people tend to waste your excess money on.
another idea is to donate money to slashdot to keep them running, and slashdot will donate a portion of that to various organizations like the ACLU, etc.
just a few thoughts that might be helpful, I figured they were much needed since other slashdotters tend to enjoy bitching about this well maintained, FREE ACCESS web site than thinking up ways to keep it going.
The virtual child pornography issue seems a little strange... The reason real child pornography is illegal is because the actual aquiring of child porn pictures/videos requires someone to have sex with a real live 8 year old (or whatever age John Q. Pedophile likes), which is harmful to the child, not to mention illegal in itself. By using a 3d modelling program, you remove the whole "real live child" part, thus making it so nothing illegal has been done to aquire this footage or image.
I'm sure the supreme court will argue that simulated child pornography will raise the child molestation rates, but it seems more logical that it will have the same effect as regular porn. That is, a pedophile looks up some fake kiddie porn on the net, jerks off and forgets about it (I'm not really sure if there are any statistics to back the claim that legal porn lowers the amount of rapes in this country, but again, it seems logical that it would).
`"it is important that web sites are secure from unauthorized access and that intellectual property is protected. Cyberspace will be a better place for all if such privacy and property rights are respected," stated Assistant United States Attorney Jeff Gallant.'
Also from the release:
"Using MS Front Page, defendant discovered a common security flaw between MS Front Page and MS Internet Information Server (IIS), the server software being run by
PDNS."
So tell me why Microsoft is not facing misdemeanor (or felony) charges instead of the user that was clever enough to discover yet another innovative, undocumented feature in the software..
Since the DoJ is obviously committed to making sure "that web sites are secure from unauthorized access and that intellectual property is protected," they'd better throw the FBI at any average citizen that is smart enough to research the (in)security of the software that they use, instead of targeting the company that is more concerned with taking your money than making sure it actually works.
And let me tell you, purple potatoes are by far some of the best. They don't stay purple when you cook them, they turn blue, but it makes for nice blue mashed potatoes. I find it strange that when the commercial (chemical farming) market finds out about something organic farmers have grown for years everyone is like "oh boy, somebody invented a new GM food!"
Hopefully someday people will begin to realize that not only is organic food good for you (i.e. doesn't contain horrible pesticides and herbicides), but it tastes MUCH BETTER than conventional farmed food, because and organic farmer's selling point is quality, not quantity. Conventional produce is almost always GM, chemical fed, and pumped so full of water that you can't even taste it anymore.
If you live in (or visit) Arcata, CA (Humboldt County), go to farmers market on Saturdays and buy some purple potatoes from Warren Creek Farms. You'll never eat conventional farmed crap again.
It didn't help me in the sense that it kept me away from drugs, if that is the question, but it did help me realize the ridiculousness of our government and society's "justifications" for their war on drugs. Even back when DARE was being forced down my throat in 6th grade, a time when I had not even tried drugs yet, more or less heard of most of them, It infuriated me that they felt they had the right to tell me what I was allowed to do with my body, something that didn't affect them in any way, yet they still felt the need to force their beliefs upon me just like every other traditional load of bullshit that has been barraged upon me from day 1.
Our governments insistance on interfering with every single personal issue in our lives has always pissed me off, and I'm not going to take their bullshit anymore. Instead of playing the guilty part and letting the government continue to oppress people for things that they want to do to themselves, people need to take a stand and fight back against this ridiculous puritan system.
Anyway, I guess I'll turn off my rant mode now, but I believe that this is something that really needs to be changed, and soon.
I saw these being demoed at Defcon in the CTF area, and I was quite impressed by the size but I can't see how they justify the price of these, unless they come with the flatscreen LCD that was being used for the demo, but still.. I don't quite see any reason why someone would want to spend this much on a 486sx, regardless of size.
So does the 4.0.1 release fix this? I was a little disgruntled when I got xf4.0 and could not find any way to get it to work... Which I thought was my fault but I guess not.
I wonder if the xfree86 .tgz in slackware 7.1 includes this hack for voodoo3's or not.. It certainly would be convenient to just get the xf86 and 3dfx specific tgz's from ftp.slackware.com, but considering how infamous slackware is for upgrading, maybe that isn't such a good idea.