Take these gifs, stick them on your website somewhere, and make my government look like the drongos they are. Oh. and link'em to http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/stop.html
You let them take your guns, now they can do anything they want.
Hahahahahah! Oh yeah. Well, for a start most of us have never really had guns to start with. And those of us that do tend to use it for sensible uses, instead of trying to hold off the coup etats you lot richly deserve.
Sad sad Americans, who will never truly know freedom.
Nope. The head of state is still the Queen of England, and we are still a monarchy. This is how it is according to the constitution anyway. There is a movement to do away with the constitutional monarchy, but it is still resisted by those who think the sky will fall in if we actually base our laws on a real constitution.
Indeed. (actually, technically she's the Queen of Australia, she just happens to be the same as the Queen of England.) Actually, we're going to have a referendum on this question later in the year, unfortunately a group of elitist republicans, the Australian Republican Movement, gazumped the Constitutional Convention last year and pushed through an entirely unsatisfactory republican model where parliamentarians will appoint the president, which will serve as the "Yes" option in the referendum.
The ARM had the somewhat patronising attitude that the Australian people shouldn't be allowed to actually elect the president directly, which really isn't much better than having a foreign monarch. And as for the monarchists...
Consequently, even though I do definately want an indigenous head-of-state, I am still in two minds as whether to vote for the status quo (the constitutional monarchy) or the degenerate republic-lite later this year.
I should also add that Australia is already technically independent, and has been so since the 1930s, with Britain relinquishing its remaining privileges since then. But an Australian head of state still has an symbolic importantance.
Don't ever link freedom of speech with firearm ownership. What do you think the flipside of "an armed society is a polite society" is?
I quite like the fact that I can walk down the street without every disgruntled One Nation voter having the option to blow my brains out because they don't like the way I dress.
The gun lobby has made the American government gutless. Fortunately we haven't let that happen here.
"We won't use guns, we won't use bombs, we'll use the one thing we've got more of, that's our brains." - Jarvis Cocker.
Whoo. Bravo Ari. If they don't publish this in the next print edition of PCMag... well...
Need I add that Good Programmers Won't Starve. Good Programmers can always Get a Job.
Actually, does anyone else see a parallel between the "Open Source = Programmers will Starve!" and "MP3s = Musicians will Starve!" FUD campaigns? Obviously, the dynamics aren't quite close enough to make a decent analogy, but you know...
Hmm. In one of those weekend magazine liftouts (no URL, I'm afraid, though it might've been a mirrored, ahh, syndicated article online elsewhere.) in the Sydney Morning Herald, they had an article on Linux. Obviously, they bunged up Linus' goofy face on the first page, but they also had a smaller picture of RMS (replete with borrowed laptop with "GNU/Linux inside")
Anyway, the point is, Linus in the article was very forthright about his and Stallman's relative contributions to the system, giving RMS plenty of credit. I can understand why RMS is pissed tho', since he's an idealist, and idealists tend not to appreciate having their ideals diluted.
As for the further development of Linux, if you don't like what Linus is doing, fork the bitch! :) If it means that the kernel for embedded systems has to take a different course to large scale systems, so be it. I think the "movement" is big enough and ugly enough to handle it.
Heh. Of course, if you're going to think like that, you may as well lie down in front of the Juggernaut with all the glorps you despise. Anyway.
No problem with being sceptical. But it is possible to be sceptical and optimistic.
Seriously, no-one's really come up with a word like "Renaissance" or "Enlightenment" for this wave. Actually, hopefully no-one does (unless it's a good, inspiring word, not some catch-phrase some meme-miner came up with...) After we get over the upcoming daytrader caused market crash of course...
The Kant you speak of is probably writing his great thesis with a iMac, of all those. Hell, we have to work out where we're going first.
Anarcho-syndicalism? Liberal Libertarianism? Speak-softly-but-carry-a-big-box-of-Linux-distro-C Ds Socialism? Are you a Dawkinsian or a Gouldian? Stallmanism? Pre-Transhumanism?
It gladdens my heart that you've gotten over the big hurdle (i mean, it won't be the last, but at least you've got it up and running.)
It also gladdens my heart that the majority of responses to your article have been positive, which reassures me that the GNU community isn't a bunch of judgemental morons. (In fact they never were, it's just the odd johnny-come-latelys, who appear to have graduated from the Amiga school of elitism, who tend to spout the most crap. And if they don't want to read your articles, well, they shouldn't.)
Don't worry, anyway, I haven't quite worked out the PPP peculiarities with my service provider just yet either:)
Not to crunch the snails in your garden, But I am starting to find your Douglas Rushkoff with a screwdriver commentaries a trifle annoying. I suppose if I wanted I could post thousand word essays on "Zen and the art of unscrewing a case and putting it back together", but I don't.
Why not? Because it would be kinda dull.
However, I will refrain from being too unkind, unlike the typical elitist fanboy Gnazi dork-pretending-to-be-geek who will soon fill this forum with their holier-than-thou flames. "It's only a bloody operating system, not a religion!". Blind zealotry will do as much to kill off the Linux cause as any Microsoft FUD pogrom.
It is a bit complicated, and frustrating! But fortunately, it eventually starts clicking into place. Not everybody started hacking on C64s at the age of 6. Those that did can't really understand why some people would find computers so frustrating at times, just to accomplish basic tasks, as opposed to finishing off that flying cow theme for Enlightenment.
On a side note, I think Apple will actually become a player in the computer industry again, now that Jobs is at the helm. Jobs might have a lot of ego problems, but he has something that businesspeople dont have, that spark of ingenuity. Whatever you want to say about the iMac, you have to admit that it looks cool, it will fit perfectly along with the nice new VW beetle (that is an AWESOME car).
Heheh. I'd probably settle for one of them Commodore Coupes, personally.
Actually, it's kinda nice that Apple are back in action, (lets face it, before the G3 and iMac, well, they looked a bit green around the gills.) since they don't want to take over everything.
Well, it's all very well for the recording companies to say that if you don't buy the CD, the artists are going to suffer. But how much percentage of the cash you sell out on records goes to the artists? 10, maybe 20 percent? Not to mention that artists don't get to eat much of that, anyway, since they probably have to buy equipment, pay their manager and tour expenses out of that as well. There's the retailers, the distributors, the manufacturers, the song publishers, and the record company. Who are, shall we say, a bit inefficient. Promotional expenses? Often that's a cover up for shouting execs big decadent parties where they can do heaps of backslapping for discovering Alanis Morrisette, whilst letting dozens of more talented musicians rot in day job limbo.
Anyway, the recording industry deserves a slapping, and it's going to get it.
I will say that I do find MP3s a bit lacking in sound quality, being less entropic than CD Audio, but there are new compression formats that are less shitty sounding, and though the actual format might change, the idea of compressed audio. Increased bandwidth in the future will just be another nail in the coffin. Either way, MP3 is a great promotional media, akin to radio, and if people are quite happy to regard MP3s as a keeper format, no amount of RIAA posturing will change that.
I still buy CDs, BTW, because I'm still in love with the idea of the album. But in the future I might well be buying those albums directly from the artist or small label. Even if they sell at half the price of what they do now, they'll see more of the money. Hell, they might even be able live off the income. Ironically, this is one case where market forces may bring about a more equitable outcome. Though I suspect I'm dreaming in that case.
Oh dear. That's just the motivation I needed to get off my arse and finish this record. Just to wipe your maniacal MORE POWER-obsessed grin off your face.
If you've been sentient for any amount of time, you'd realise what a silly statement "if it's newer, its better -- always, automatically, instantaneously." is. Most MP3's I've heard sound significantly worse than CD-quality audio, and often lag behind mods played back on a decent player as well.
Besides, considering part of the imperative for getting a faster computer was so I could get the oodles of channels and rezzo filters in IT, and mess around with Buzz as well, your point about "it was great in the days when computers had neither the hardware nor the horsepower to do proper music" seems rather moronic. The tools evolve to fit the capabilities of the platform.
Who cares about your 31337 warez "kiddies", anyway? They're too thick to produce thier own music, they can only squeak like newly hatched starlings "gimme mp3z! gimme mp3z!". Gotta love scene bitchiness.
Getting back to the KFMF, yes, Maelcum is an annoying bugger, but from what I can tell he isn't making an awful lot of money out of it. Probably making a loss. To insist that he is somehow profiteering, to place him in the same category as the Big Six^H^H^HFive, to play the worn-out punk reactionary "SELL OUT" card is inappropriate in this case.
From some of the music he's done, he's isn't a slouch in the musician department, either, though I don't think Celine Dion's in any danger.
And yes, while there's been a fair amount of dross on KFMF recently, there's been the odd gem worth all the trouble.
There's not just the KFMF, of course, as has been said before, but the point needs to be made, NOISE, Five Musicians and the like also bung out great music.
Slashdot Mirror
Take these gifs, stick them on your website somewhere, and make my government look like the drongos they are. Oh. and link'em to
b lack.gif w hite.gif
http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/stop.html
http://usrwww.mpx.com.au/~gths/freespeech/auban
http://usrwww.mpx.com.au/~gths/freespeech/auban
P.S. John Pilger is a moron.
Hahahahahah! Oh yeah. Well, for a start most of us have never really had guns to start with. And those of us that do tend to use it for sensible uses, instead of trying to hold off the coup etats you lot richly deserve.
Sad sad Americans, who will never truly know freedom.
Indeed. (actually, technically she's the Queen of Australia, she just happens to be the same as the Queen of England.) Actually, we're going to have a referendum on this question later in the year, unfortunately a group of elitist republicans, the Australian Republican Movement, gazumped the Constitutional Convention last year and pushed through an entirely unsatisfactory republican model where parliamentarians will appoint the president, which will serve as the "Yes" option in the referendum.
The ARM had the somewhat patronising attitude that the Australian people shouldn't be allowed to actually elect the president directly, which really isn't much better than having a foreign monarch. And as for the monarchists...
Consequently, even though I do definately want an indigenous head-of-state, I am still in two minds as whether to vote for the status quo (the constitutional monarchy) or the degenerate republic-lite later this year.
I should also add that Australia is already technically independent, and has been so since the 1930s, with Britain relinquishing its remaining privileges since then. But an Australian head of state still has an symbolic importantance.
But this getting way off topic, isn't it?
Hell yeah. I can call you a bastich and you can't shoot me for it! Ain't the internet great? :-)
Don't ever link freedom of speech with firearm ownership. What do you think the flipside of "an armed society is a polite society" is?
I quite like the fact that I can walk down the street without every disgruntled One Nation voter having the option to blow my brains out because they don't like the way I dress.
The gun lobby has made the American government gutless. Fortunately we haven't let that happen here.
"We won't use guns, we won't use bombs, we'll use the one thing we've got more of, that's our brains." - Jarvis Cocker.
Need I add that Good Programmers Won't Starve. Good Programmers can always Get a Job.
Actually, does anyone else see a parallel between the "Open Source = Programmers will Starve!" and "MP3s = Musicians will Starve!" FUD campaigns? Obviously, the dynamics aren't quite close enough to make a decent analogy, but you know...
Hmm. In one of those weekend magazine liftouts
(no URL, I'm afraid, though it might've been a mirrored, ahh, syndicated article online elsewhere.) in the Sydney Morning Herald, they had an article on Linux. Obviously, they bunged up Linus' goofy face on the first page, but they also had a smaller picture of RMS (replete with borrowed laptop with "GNU/Linux inside")
Anyway, the point is, Linus in the article was very forthright about his and Stallman's relative
contributions to the system, giving RMS plenty of credit. I can understand why RMS is pissed tho', since he's an idealist, and idealists tend not to appreciate having their ideals diluted.
As for the further development of Linux, if you don't like what Linus is doing, fork the bitch!
:) If it means that the kernel for embedded systems has to take a different course to large scale systems, so be it. I think the "movement"
is big enough and ugly enough to handle it.
No problem with being sceptical. But it is possible to be sceptical and optimistic.
Seriously, no-one's really come up with a word like "Renaissance" or "Enlightenment" for this wave. Actually, hopefully no-one does (unless it's a good, inspiring word, not some catch-phrase some
meme-miner came up with...) After we get over the upcoming daytrader caused market crash of course...
The Kant you speak of is probably writing his great thesis with a iMac, of all those. Hell, we have to work out where we're going first.
Anarcho-syndicalism? Liberal Libertarianism? Speak-softly-but-carry-a-big-box-of-Linux-distro-
Whatever, D00d...
What a heap of non-sequiters that was.
Oh well, at least it won't be my personal page that has to take the brunt of the slashdot effect
this time around. Nice to see people like it.
It gladdens my heart that you've gotten over the big hurdle (i mean, it won't be the last, but at least you've got it up and running.)
:)
It also gladdens my heart that the majority of responses to your article have been positive, which reassures me that the GNU community isn't a bunch of judgemental morons. (In fact they never were, it's just the odd johnny-come-latelys, who
appear to have graduated from the Amiga school of elitism, who tend to spout the most crap. And if they don't want to read your articles, well, they shouldn't.)
Don't worry, anyway, I haven't quite worked out the PPP peculiarities with my service provider just yet either
Why not? Because it would be kinda dull.
However, I will refrain from being too unkind, unlike the typical elitist fanboy Gnazi dork-pretending-to-be-geek who will soon fill this forum with their holier-than-thou flames. "It's only a bloody operating system, not a religion!". Blind zealotry will do as much to kill off the Linux cause as any Microsoft FUD pogrom.
It is a bit complicated, and frustrating! But fortunately, it eventually starts clicking into place. Not everybody started hacking on C64s at the age of 6. Those that did can't really understand why some people would find computers so frustrating at times, just to accomplish basic tasks, as opposed to finishing off that flying cow theme for Enlightenment.
Cheers.
-- GtHS.
Heheh. I'd probably settle for one of them Commodore Coupes, personally.
Actually, it's kinda nice that Apple are back in action, (lets face it, before the G3 and iMac, well, they looked a bit green around the gills.)
since they don't want to take over everything.
Graham the Happy Scum
Anyway, the recording industry deserves a slapping, and it's going to get it.
I will say that I do find MP3s a bit lacking in sound quality, being less entropic than CD Audio, but there are new compression formats that are less shitty sounding, and though the actual format might change, the idea of compressed audio. Increased bandwidth in the future will just be another nail in the coffin. Either way, MP3 is a great promotional media, akin to radio, and if people are quite happy to regard MP3s as a keeper format, no amount of RIAA posturing will change that.
I still buy CDs, BTW, because I'm still in love with the idea of the album. But in the future I might well be buying those albums directly from the artist or small label. Even if they sell at half the price of what they do now, they'll see more of the money. Hell, they might even be able live off the income. Ironically, this is one case where market forces may bring about a more equitable outcome. Though I suspect I'm dreaming in that case.
It's a Brave New World, kiddies. Hold on tight.
If you've been sentient for any amount of time, you'd realise what a silly statement "if it's newer, its better -- always, automatically, instantaneously." is. Most MP3's I've heard sound significantly worse than CD-quality audio, and often lag behind mods played back on a decent player as well.
Besides, considering part of the imperative for getting a faster computer was so I could get the oodles of channels and rezzo filters in IT, and mess around with Buzz as well, your point about "it was great in the days when computers had neither the hardware nor the horsepower to do proper music" seems rather moronic. The tools evolve to fit the capabilities of the platform.
Who cares about your 31337 warez "kiddies", anyway? They're too thick to produce thier own music, they can only squeak like newly hatched starlings "gimme mp3z! gimme mp3z!". Gotta love scene bitchiness.
Getting back to the KFMF, yes, Maelcum is an annoying bugger, but from what I can tell he isn't making an awful lot of money out of it. Probably making a loss. To insist that he is somehow profiteering, to place him in the same category as the Big Six^H^H^HFive, to play the worn-out punk reactionary "SELL OUT" card is inappropriate in this case.
From some of the music he's done, he's isn't a slouch in the musician department, either, though I don't think Celine Dion's in any danger.
And yes, while there's been a fair amount of dross on KFMF recently, there's been the odd gem worth all the trouble.
There's not just the KFMF, of course, as has been said before, but the point needs to be made, NOISE, Five Musicians and the like also bung out great music.