Human rights are something that really exist, or don't exist. People who are being opressed are often in the least capable position for pressuring their opresser. Working to forward someone else's freedom is not as altruistic as it may seem at first glance.
I was hunting for this quote from the NAZI era, but I found an 'update' with a more direct bent.
First they came...
First they came for the hackers.
But I never did anything illegal with my computer,
so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the pornographers.
But I thought there was too much smut on the Internet anyway,
so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the anonymous remailers.
But a lot of nasty stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi,
so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the encryption users.
But I could never figure out how to work PGP anyway,
so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for me.
And by that time there was no one left to speak up.
That actually gave me cause to think. If you really believe in the right to bear arms, for the original reason (protection against a state out of control, not protection from a neighbour with criminal intentions), then the fight against gun control should not be stopping at semi-automatic weapons. If these people really believed in the constitution, they should be fighting (excuse the pun) for the right to own, fully automatic weapons with unlimited ammo clip size, bazookas, laser sights and even the occasional SAM battery.
If you can't mount an effective defence against the government, you obviously won't be able to overthrow it when it gets out of hand.
btw: This is spoken as someone who does not own a gun and does not intend to. -- but if I did, it would be to protect me aginst the state, not my neighbour. `ø,,ø!
First of all: They're not coming into your home. They're stopping you on a Public shared street, giving you a quick once-over, and -- if you look drunk -- asking you for a breath sample.
Second: In BC, where their year-round use was pioneered, Drunk driving is no longer the top killer on our roads (now it's speeding). You can argue the constitutionality of the stops, but at least do it based on available facts.
That having been said, if they asked to search my car at a checkpoint (I almost never drink -- much less drink and drive), I'd Just Say No. The real problem is that most Canadians don't know that they have the right to say that to a request for an unconstitutional search.
`ø,,ø!
Disgust at the Liberal win doesn't have much to do with being Reform. They shouldn't have gotten the number of seats that they did either, given the distribution of votes. I'm Green, and I'm disgusted with the system too. (probably moreso than most Reform supporters). `ø,,ø!
Not quite true. We did have a constitution. It just wasn't embodied in a single -- easily readable document. Our actual consitution is a series of documents going back to the 17th century, including the BNA act of 1867, which is probably the closes thing we have to the US version, in terms of defining which level of government does what. All the Constitution Act of 1982 did was give us control over our constitution (it's no longer under the control of the British parliament).
As for our so-called charter of rights (an addition to the 1982 act), the notwithstanding clause means that any government that wants to be nasty (the kind you tend to need the most protection from) has the ability to ignore most of the important parts of charter by just saying so. `ø,,ø!
We're just too stinkin' nice to need guns for self defence. -- It's not like we didn't have our columbine copy-cat. It's that with one dead, and one wounded, it was national news (and still is -- the kid just went on trial). In the states, a shooting that size would barely make it into some local newspapers, much less onto the national news. `ø,,ø!
Some docters go from Canada to the States. Others go the other way round because, although they might not make as much money, it's a much more humane system. You're not always turning people down because they don't have the money to pay you. For some doctors this, alone, is enough to bring them over to Canada.
I've had a number of friends who've gone down to the States to work (better pay there), but they tend to be happy to return to Canada. Money's not the only thing that makes for a good life -- Just ask whats-his-name from Nirvana who make a couple million dollars and then blew his brains out.
Oh, yeah, that's right... We've got Sarah McLauclin too. `ø,,ø!
And be careful if you voice your dissent, we've got us an election gag law that puts restricts
private citizens' ability to run political ads.
Then again, we don't have a two-party system where you have to fight like the devil just to get on the ballot (not that it's much easier to win, though). All it takes in Canada to become a party is to run candidates in enough ridings, and deal with the paperwork requirements. At that point, you not only get to spend your heart out, you even get to issue tax reciepts.
Of course, your chances of winning aren't that much better. Only 5 parties made it into parliament, this time 'round. `ø,,ø!
It depends on the ADSL system you're using. For a number of years, I had an Amati modem. After a few months, the splitter 'broke' and cut off my ENTIRE phone service. When the repair guy came in to fix it, he didn't have a spare splitter, so he just bypassed it. They never got around to replacing it. I couldn't tell the difference, and even (pots) modem work still connected at full speed.
I now have a 3com ADSL modem. It has a DEFINITE noise problem without the splitter. Even without the splitter, people complain that the line sounds echoey. `ø,,ø!
This was actually QUITE pre dot-com (mid 80's). A friend of mine worked for a Biochemestry lab, and allowed me to use their UNIX boxes (a Sun and an early SGI) to do some personal research. While I was using their systems, I also cleaned up some of the ways they were set up (yes, I got the root password). One day his boss cornered me and we had a short conversation. ("Either accept a job as our systems admin, or we cut you off the computers.")
About 4 months later, I went into the main office to get a new toner for their laser printer, and they asked me who I was....
"Ah, so
You're Stephen Samuel! It's nice to know that you're real. We were wondering who those cheques were going to.
I believe that that defence was actually used in Canada as a defence against a murder charge. Sucessfully. There was some serious question as to whether or not it would apply to a drunk driving charge.
"I was so drunk that I couldn't form the necessary criminal intent." `ø,,ø!
Perhaps giving people (paid) guided tours of the facility might be a way for the astronomers to gat a bit of extra cash.
If nothing else, it would be a way of dealing with all of those/.ers who now want to see the place.
BTW: I would suggest that the astronomers investigate the dish in the 'golf ball'. My guess is that it's more capable, in some way or other, than the otheer dishes were. "Nothing in this place is quite what it seems" `ø,,ø!
It would be more useful if the links (esp. the HTTP links) contained some path info. The front pages of the sites don't always contain obvious pointers to the Linux kernel archives. `ø,,ø!
This is somewhat along the lines of The Hunger Project, which is attempting to end hunger by empowering the people in those countries to improve their situation. (btw: when they speak of "investors", they're talking about people investing time and money to create a future of people self-sufficient and empowered -- not investing for a monetary feedback. `ø,,ø!
If Linux is going to compete against MS on the desktop market, it needs to be easier to
install/configure.
Something to note here is that the only reason MS Wintendos doesn't seem hard to install is that it's hard for most newbie users to get a machine without it pre-installed (even if they really don't want it included.
Sometimes if you're not unlucky a windows installation will go quick and clean with no hitches. Woe to the newbie user, though, who
has to do his/her own installation -- especially
if something doesn't go as MS planned it. I have a friend who had a pretty good understanding of Window. Sometimes, however, even he would head home completely frustrated after spending a day (or two) trying to get windows to install properly on some box.. If it had been a user doing the installation, I think that Linux would have been an easy sell at that point.
My own experience is that a Linux installation is far easier than
a Windows installation. Of course I've actually installed
both of them. That makes me unusual. Most newbie users have never
actually seen an MS install disk out of it's envelope. For the sake
of their sanity, they should keep it that way.
`ø,,ø!
Coming under the terms of the pagecreators conditions would have required someone to wilfully engage the company in a support contract in the face of their "unreasonable terms". This is a bit different than accidently reading your request, or even the infamous shrink-wrapped post-purchase bring back the package and just try and get a refund after you've opened the box contracts. It gives these people a bit more of a defence, should you take them to court. In other words, a judge is far less likely to give you summary (quick) judgement. The fact that you might succeed after a long, drawn out battle is pretty much irrelevant.
One of the tactics of a good scammer is to muddy the waters enough that a legal attack would get mired down in the details. (This would include things like making your teenaged son the front man for the operation. [anybody have any details on the parents??]). It raises the cost of the battle beyond the probable returns -- this would prevent an actual pursuit by anybody who's not more interested in revenge than getting his/her money back (happily, there appear to be a couple of victims like that in this case). `ø,,ø!
I would have moderated the post(item 172)up as funny (people need to read it). Unfortunately, my moderation points evaporated over the Christmas holidays. `ø,,ø!
The only terms available on the site seem to indicate that it's just a beta release of a commercial product with a standard commercial license.
Not only does it look like you can't mirror it, most of the source code isn't available for you to mirror. They claim that they expect (in the future) "40 - 50% of the source code will be available to the public", but they currently claim that only "... as much as 1/3rd of the source code is publicly available...". (emphasis mine)
My expectation is that they hope that by making SOME of the source available they will get people to do free work that will be pretty much only useful with athena -- i.e. most of the 'free' source code will be user contributed, not company contributed. They may simply hope that they've provided enough to seed the field.
`ø,,ø!
It may be unenforceable, but -- given that you've "agreed to the terms", it essentially puts you on the defensive, instead of them. If you go to court, the initial question is probably going to be "you agreed to it, so why should we ignore it", rather than "Are they trying to fleece you?".
All of a sudden a probable slam-dunk becomes quite non-trivial.
Slashdot Mirror
I was hunting for this quote from the NAZI era, but I found an 'update' with a more direct bent.
GRRR!
`ø,,ø!
If you can't mount an effective defence against the government, you obviously won't be able to overthrow it when it gets out of hand.
btw: This is spoken as someone who does not own a gun and does not intend to. -- but if I did, it would be to protect me aginst the state, not my neighbour.
`ø,,ø!
Second: In BC, where their year-round use was pioneered, Drunk driving is no longer the top killer on our roads (now it's speeding). You can argue the constitutionality of the stops, but at least do it based on available facts.
That having been said, if they asked to search my car at a checkpoint (I almost never drink -- much less drink and drive), I'd Just Say No. The real problem is that most Canadians don't know that they have the right to say that to a request for an unconstitutional search.
`ø,,ø!
Disgust at the Liberal win doesn't have much to do with being Reform. They shouldn't have gotten the number of seats that they did either, given the distribution of votes. I'm Green, and I'm disgusted with the system too. (probably moreso than most Reform supporters).
`ø,,ø!
As for our so-called charter of rights (an addition to the 1982 act), the notwithstanding clause means that any government that wants to be nasty (the kind you tend to need the most protection from) has the ability to ignore most of the important parts of charter by just saying so.
`ø,,ø!
I always thought the proper word was "Yank".
Asbestos suit on. Water cooling enabled.
`ø,,ø!
We're just too stinkin' nice to need guns for self defence. -- It's not like we didn't have our columbine copy-cat. It's that with one dead, and one wounded, it was national news (and still is -- the kid just went on trial). In the states, a shooting that size would barely make it into some local newspapers, much less onto the national news.
`ø,,ø!
I've had a number of friends who've gone down to the States to work (better pay there), but they tend to be happy to return to Canada. Money's not the only thing that makes for a good life -- Just ask whats-his-name from Nirvana who make a couple million dollars and then blew his brains out.
Oh, yeah, that's right... We've got Sarah McLauclin too.
`ø,,ø!
Then again, we don't have a two-party system where you have to fight like the devil just to get on the ballot (not that it's much easier to win, though). All it takes in Canada to become a party is to run candidates in enough ridings, and deal with the paperwork requirements. At that point, you not only get to spend your heart out, you even get to issue tax reciepts.
Of course, your chances of winning aren't that much better. Only 5 parties made it into parliament, this time 'round.
`ø,,ø!
Kinda like the telephone. (Bell was actually born in Scotland, but split his time between Canada and the US).
`ø,,ø!
I now have a 3com ADSL modem. It has a DEFINITE noise problem without the splitter. Even without the splitter, people complain that the line sounds echoey.
`ø,,ø!
When you work for the military, "being terminated" has a much more ominous implication.
`ø,,ø!
About 4 months later, I went into the main office to get a new toner for their laser printer, and they asked me who I was....
`ø,,ø!
"I was so drunk that I couldn't form the necessary criminal intent."
`ø,,ø!
BTW: I would suggest that the astronomers investigate the dish in the 'golf ball'. My guess is that it's more capable, in some way or other, than the otheer dishes were. "Nothing in this place is quite what it seems"
`ø,,ø!
shouldn't that be "between various commercial and open source vulnerability assessment scanners"?
`ø,,ø!
It would be more useful if the links (esp. the HTTP links) contained some path info. The front pages of the sites don't always contain obvious pointers to the Linux kernel archives.
`ø,,ø!
This is somewhat along the lines of The Hunger Project, which is attempting to end hunger by empowering the people in those countries to improve their situation. (btw: when they speak of "investors", they're talking about people investing time and money to create a future of people self-sufficient and empowered -- not investing for a monetary feedback.
`ø,,ø!
The Delphion link includes a good bit of information including a pointer to images of the original paper patent application
`ø,,ø!
It's only invisible until it hits "an opaque surface". They're just talking about your average LED style laser.
`ø,,ø!
Sometimes if you're not unlucky a windows installation will go quick and clean with no hitches. Woe to the newbie user, though, who has to do his/her own installation -- especially if something doesn't go as MS planned it. I have a friend who had a pretty good understanding of Window. Sometimes, however, even he would head home completely frustrated after spending a day (or two) trying to get windows to install properly on some box.. If it had been a user doing the installation, I think that Linux would have been an easy sell at that point.
My own experience is that a Linux installation is far easier than a Windows installation. Of course I've actually installed both of them. That makes me unusual. Most newbie users have never actually seen an MS install disk out of it's envelope. For the sake of their sanity, they should keep it that way.
`ø,,ø!
One of the tactics of a good scammer is to muddy the waters enough that a legal attack would get mired down in the details. (This would include things like making your teenaged son the front man for the operation. [anybody have any details on the parents??]). It raises the cost of the battle beyond the probable returns -- this would prevent an actual pursuit by anybody who's not more interested in revenge than getting his/her money back (happily, there appear to be a couple of victims like that in this case).
`ø,,ø!
I would have moderated the post(item 172) up as funny (people need to read it). Unfortunately, my moderation points evaporated over the Christmas holidays.
`ø,,ø!
Not only does it look like you can't mirror it, most of the source code isn't available for you to mirror. They claim that they expect (in the future) "40 - 50% of the source code will be available to the public", but they currently claim that only "... as much as 1/3rd of the source code is publicly available...". (emphasis mine)
My expectation is that they hope that by making SOME of the source available they will get people to do free work that will be pretty much only useful with athena -- i.e. most of the 'free' source code will be user contributed, not company contributed. They may simply hope that they've provided enough to seed the field.
`ø,,ø!
All of a sudden a probable slam-dunk becomes quite non-trivial.
IANAL -- but I like pissing them off.
`ø,,ø!