With the second amended complaint, we were able to add a complaint for vicarious infringement against AOL for the development of the Gnutella file transfer protocol by its Nullsoft division.... This presents interesting issues regarding the responsibility for the release of software which effectively pollutes the intellectual property environment.
I think Mr. Ellison is a very smart guy, and I've always had a lot of respect for him. But this is sad and disappointing.
Software is ideas. Harlan Ellison is stepping beyond the issue of copyright infringement and is now arguing that we should restrict people's ability to create and share their own ideas.
Forbidding someone to create and share whatever software they choose, is precisely like forbidding someone to write down their own thoughts on paper and share them. He is attacking the very concept of free speech. As an author, he should be ashamed.
So I guess you just keep cleaning products and medicine left open all over the house.
After all, *you're the parent* and so it's YOUR responsibility to keep your kids from having a meal of Codeine with a Drano chaser. You can't expect some furniture company's locking cabinet to do your parenting for you.
there are ways to properly fight the misuse of advertising, including ignoring advertising-sponsored content. but blocking that advertising is nothing but stealing.
What exactly is less "immoral" about ignoring the ads once they appear on the page, rather than blocking the ads before the page is rendered?
If you say that we are morally bound to any sort of action when we view an ad-sponsored site, then by your argument ignoring a visible ad is immoral! Because the intent of the advertising is not simply that you display it on your screen, but that you LOOK at it, and seriously consider buying the product in question.
User Friendly speaks to those who have grown up and started working in the industry,
Pfft. "You're just not sophisticated enough to appreciate the depth of User Friendly.", huh? User friendly is NOT FUNNY. It gained some sort of fame because it was the first online comic that had 'slashdot' subject matter, and now it somehow manages to beat that sad horse for another strip week after week. But it would never, ever stand on it's own merit.
And don't even get me started on the most pathetic part of the site.
Re:A community site deserves the BBC.
on
Hope For H2G2
·
· Score: 2
Wow, a complete generalization of national attitudes based entirely on the portrayal of those nations in American media. We're all enlightened now.
as we have plenty of personality and have no concept of embarrassment or reserve or humility.
That's rich. Apart from a few counties with a largely fundamentalist religious population, the US may have the most repressive attitude towards sexuality in the entire world.
If you get 10:1 (a stretch) compression that's still 20 DVD's.
When is the last time you looked at a typical Usenet thread?
Repetitive messages of 99% duplicate text with "Me too!" appended. Identical spam copied to thousands of groups. Heck, September ("newbie month!") from successive years probably has nearly identical content.
It also bothers me slightly to think that people's comments and flame wars will langish forever in the federal library. I don't think access to USENET postings is something the nation craves or needs.
"We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true."
Gauntlet was the first videogame on which I regularly made new friends. There's been nothing like it before or since; it invoked a spontaneous camaradarie among the players, as you taught each other the tricks, gave up health for the weaker players, and watched each other's backs.
I'm surprised that the notion of a cooperative, rather than competitive multiplayer game hasn't seen more exposure. The modern 'two gun' lightgun games are hardly in the same league.
But I don't think it'd work if you weren't all on the same machine.
What happens when there's a " character in value1? What values are valid for KEY2, and how do you check them? How many platforms are you prepared to write code on that can parse your format?
The idea is that XML spares you the trouble of defining your own file format and managing all the grunt work of data files. It lets you use common parsing, validation, and document manipulation tools.
The most common reason I have seen for advocating cloning is to create a genetic duplicate of someone who has a dehabilitating injury to provide tissue for transplantation.
The "most common" reason, huh? Please cite even ONE reference of a person seriously advocating cloning for that reason. The only people that ever suggest such a thing are the paranoid fundamentalists that want to inspire fear of the technology.
in the case of twins God bestows 2 souls, so cloning is far removed multiple birth circumstances.
it is entirely probable that we cannot clone a soul so what kind of life are we really giving when we 'grow' a human clone.
THAT is what sparks the question "Can we properly bestow life??"
I wonder what's going to happen when we DO clone a human being, and they grow up normally. (At least, as normal as someone that famous could hope to be.) That would poke some serious holes in the theory of the divine's soul-distribution monopoly, wouldn't it?
I think I see now why the fundamentalists are so scared of cloning. It's not because of some heartfelt moral or ethical argument, it's because the whole idea of cloning breaks all kinds of their fragile laws of the universe.
Or are they going to be advocating the slaughter of these horrible soulless babies?
Now according to logic, all I have to do to prove God exists is to take ONE of those proofs and prove it factual.
This is true. But you can't. So it's sort of a moot point.
As to your silly "logical" argument, consider the following rephrasing of the same paragraph:
"Imagine a circle that contains ALL the possible proofs of God's nonexistence. Now according to logic, all I have to do to prove God does not exist is to take ONE of those proofs and prove it factual. Now conversely, any who want to prove God does exist, has to prove ***EVERY*** one of those proofs is FALSE, thus making themselves God in their own eyes, which is pretty much par for the course since they're already convinced they know how everything works."
Of course, this means God is directly responsible for all the evil and horror extant in the world. Which means God must either be evil, or be capable of evil, which negates God's omnibenevolence.
"Why did that little raccoon have to die? He didn't do anything wrong. He was just little! What's the point of putting him here and taking him back so soon? It's either mean or it's arbitrary, and either way, I've got the heebie-jeebies."
The insight I get from your comment is not that Allchin used the wrong word, but rather that the words "American" and "Corporate" are in fact completely interchangable.
Slashdot Mirror
I think Mr. Ellison is a very smart guy, and I've always had a lot of respect for him. But this is sad and disappointing.
Software is ideas. Harlan Ellison is stepping beyond the issue of copyright infringement and is now arguing that we should restrict people's ability to create and share their own ideas.
Forbidding someone to create and share whatever software they choose, is precisely like forbidding someone to write down their own thoughts on paper and share them. He is attacking the very concept of free speech. As an author, he should be ashamed.
The next thing you know, they'll be taking the Coke machine off the net!
1) You don't care about those laws that make what you're doing illegal.
sound better?
It's more specific, but you can still apply it to whatever activity you decide you'd like to do.
If you consider that a valid reason, then why not just say:
1) You don't care about laws.
and have done with it?
After all, *you're the parent* and so it's YOUR responsibility to keep your kids from having a meal of Codeine with a Drano chaser. You can't expect some furniture company's locking cabinet to do your parenting for you.
At the local comic store when I was a little kid, it took about 5 seconds.
That would take a bit of adjustment for me. I've always thought of .. as west!
What exactly is less "immoral" about ignoring the ads once they appear on the page, rather than blocking the ads before the page is rendered?
If you say that we are morally bound to any sort of action when we view an ad-sponsored site, then by your argument ignoring a visible ad is immoral! Because the intent of the advertising is not simply that you display it on your screen, but that you LOOK at it, and seriously consider buying the product in question.
Pfft. "You're just not sophisticated enough to appreciate the depth of User Friendly.", huh? User friendly is NOT FUNNY. It gained some sort of fame because it was the first online comic that had 'slashdot' subject matter, and now it somehow manages to beat that sad horse for another strip week after week. But it would never, ever stand on it's own merit.
And don't even get me started on the most pathetic part of the site.
as we have plenty of personality and have no concept of embarrassment or reserve or humility.
That's rich. Apart from a few counties with a largely fundamentalist religious population, the US may have the most repressive attitude towards sexuality in the entire world.
If only there were a way we could see images generated directly from the source...
When is the last time you looked at a typical Usenet thread?
Repetitive messages of 99% duplicate text with "Me too!" appended. Identical spam copied to thousands of groups. Heck, September ("newbie month!") from successive years probably has nearly identical content.
Usenet is a compression expert's wet dream. :)
Good lord. At around 100 Gigabytes a day, who does?
"We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true."
- Robert Wilensky
Gauntlet was the first videogame on which I regularly made new friends. There's been nothing like it before or since; it invoked a spontaneous camaradarie among the players, as you taught each other the tricks, gave up health for the weaker players, and watched each other's backs.
I'm surprised that the notion of a cooperative, rather than competitive multiplayer game hasn't seen more exposure. The modern 'two gun' lightgun games are hardly in the same league.
But I don't think it'd work if you weren't all on the same machine.
The idea is that XML spares you the trouble of defining your own file format and managing all the grunt work of data files. It lets you use common parsing, validation, and document manipulation tools.
The "most common" reason, huh? Please cite even ONE reference of a person seriously advocating cloning for that reason. The only people that ever suggest such a thing are the paranoid fundamentalists that want to inspire fear of the technology.
THAT is what sparks the question "Can we properly bestow life??"
I wonder what's going to happen when we DO clone a human being, and they grow up normally. (At least, as normal as someone that famous could hope to be.) That would poke some serious holes in the theory of the divine's soul-distribution monopoly, wouldn't it?
I think I see now why the fundamentalists are so scared of cloning. It's not because of some heartfelt moral or ethical argument, it's because the whole idea of cloning breaks all kinds of their fragile laws of the universe.
Or are they going to be advocating the slaughter of these horrible soulless babies?
This is true. But you can't. So it's sort of a moot point.
As to your silly "logical" argument, consider the following rephrasing of the same paragraph:
"Imagine a circle that contains ALL the possible proofs of God's nonexistence. Now according to logic, all I have to do to prove God does not exist is to take ONE of those proofs and prove it factual. Now conversely, any who want to prove God does exist, has to prove ***EVERY*** one of those proofs is FALSE, thus making themselves God in their own eyes, which is pretty much par for the course since they're already convinced they know how everything works."
"Why did that little raccoon have to die? He didn't do anything wrong. He was just little! What's the point of putting him here and taking him back so soon? It's either mean or it's arbitrary, and either way, I've got the heebie-jeebies."
- Calvin / Bill Waterson
The insight I get from your comment is not that Allchin used the wrong word, but rather that the words "American" and "Corporate" are in fact completely interchangable.
Aw, crap.
Real Men use a plain old hole-punch, and eyeball the placement.
Nor can you get the info that he wrote even ONE line of "assembly language" code for this "gene assembly" software.