SCO has launched at very little expense currently to themselves a successful FUD campaign. While the lawsuit may be expensive, considering lawyers fees, court costs, and other related items. The publicity campaign has been helped along by everyone protesting the actions being done by SCO. I am looking at it from this perspective. The management types right now are going to think twice about using Linux and AIX. Think that is a ridiculous statement. Guess what, I have already been to three fortune 500 company meetings where questions were asked. IBM maintains many of the systems at these companies. And many of the companies have AIX systems currently. Some even have a long term plan in the works with IBM to upgrade in a couple of years to Linux based systems. The questions being asked are some of the following types and yes I am paraphrasing: What is the status of our current systems in regard to this issue of SCO claiming you have violated your contract with them? How does this affect our long term plans? What is being done by IBM to quickly resolve this issue? Well the IBM reps answer these questions honestly. The problem is the FUD has already started to set in. The management does not care about the truth in the long term. They care about the right now. And right now they are seeing a lot of press on the SCO issue and it doesn't seem to be going away. That is what will cause them to worry. They have to be able to tell their customers that they can service their needs and the customers are going to be the same attitude as the management. The customers want to know that the system that supports who they do business with is not in jeopardy. Right now it looks like it may be. SCO may have no foundation for their claim, however before this is over they will have cost IBM money and they will have helped taint the image of Linux and other free software. And that is all they have to do. FreeBSD is the prime example of this all you have to is look at the history of their lawsuit with AT&T to understand. FreeBSD would have had a much better market share today if not for that lawsuit. While the SCO claim may have less validity than the AT&T suit. SCO has to only show one small line of code for them to turn around and say we were right. Yes the line of code could be changed but by then the PR machine will have already dealt a heavy blow. I think that this is going to drag out for a while and unless SCO is quickly put in their place the long drawn campaign will have been somewhat effective.
In 1999 the Savings Bank of Rockville placed an ad in the Connecticut Journal-Inquirer announcing that it would soon begin charging a $5 fee to customers who visited a live teller. The ad, which appeared on March 31, claimed that the fee was necessary in order to provide, "professional, caring and superior customer service." Although the ad was a joke, many customers failed to recognize it as such. One woman reportedly closed her account because of it. The bank then ran a second ad revealing that the initial ad was a joke. The bank manager commented that the first ad ironically "commits us to not charging such fees."
And how many banks now actually have these fees. No hoax.
About a year ago a similar question came up on/. in the replies was a post about this company. 34sp is a British based host provider. They incredibly inexpensive.
About $21.00 a year for the minimum package. You can of course upgrade and pay more. Their email support has been good enough that I have never had to call them.
Congradulations. It is about time that the USA caught up with the advanced broadband policies of Australia. It took you a little while but we are glad to see we layed out a good foundation for you. We will send the baseball caps as needed.
Let's get some facts straight.
1. Janitors do not just push brooms.
2. 15.00 an hour is not enough for me to have to unclogged a public toilet.
3. Having to empty the garbage cans that end up getting filled with needles and other dangerous crap. Just to get it to the dumpster 15.00 isn't even close.
4. Having to paint the outside wall in the sun all day because you kid decided to show his spelling skills with a spray can. $15.00 doesn't begin to start to cover.
I have never been a janitor but I certainly appreciate what they have to put up with. And listening to people berate them and what they do shows how clueless people are.
Let me give you a clue here is a plunger. And if you think it is just like home unclogging a public toilet, why don't you volunteer.
Nurses and teachers may be the only ones on your list that deserve the high pay.
Let's understand something. You go to work to do work. That is what the company pays you for.
You want to check your personal e-mail do it at home. You want to shop do it on your own time without
company resources. Most businesses have a huge financial investment in the computer system in the office plus the people needed to maintain and service it.
The system does not need extra expenses because you decided to check your e-mail and let some Trojan on the system. The system does not need to be brought to a halt because you are using Bear Share to download you latest soap opera or all the ping hits that come with using something like Bear Share.
The people employed to maintain the system are there to maintain the files keep good back up copies and help you when the computer you are working on decides to have a hard drive die. There is enough for the support staff to do normally without you making their job harder. Especially when they are going into overtime because of somebody's stupid screw up.
And yes the company can put in all the things to help prevent a lot of this . They would be idiots not to. But usually it is so unwanted outside issues can't come in. They don't need someone on the inside helping them. Do your ebay shopping at home.
Think this is a rant from management, wrong. I am the guy who gets stuck having to work through the weekend because somebody went on the IRC and decided yeah I will download this file of Hot Naked Young Babes. You know the overtime is nice but I haven't mowed my lawn in two months because of it.
I must admit as kid building the kits and sometimes being creative enough to make up my own designs was cool. I grew up and like many people I put my Legos away except on special occasions. I do look now with a great deal of envy toward peaple like Eric. I see him making a living doing this sometimes on a grand scale. God I hate him. I work in hell and he gets to play with legos all day.
Realizing that they called them "light sabers" and not "something else" sabers is why George is going after them but a search on google would keep George in court for a while. I realize that many of these sites have disclaimers and alter the names of their sabers so as to avoid the lawyers from Sith,Sith and Sith. Still I wouldn't mind having one of these
Well you don't have to belive the ice ages on this planet have happened recently and climate changes can be dramtic enough without undue influence from man . Besides that althou the planet is a couple of billion years old the exsistance of man on this planet is not. Man made pollutants have rendered areas unihabatible . These factors contribute to atmosphic pollutants which help the global warming isssue. The planet may exsist another couple of billion years. How ever it may not be able to support life. Humans should try to contribute to a continued exsistance and not a quick destruction.
Let us bring in the ideas by a man who has actually done some thing with legos. Eric Harshbarger. He has created the lego desk.I don't remember to many erector set desks. Eric has also managed to create many other wonderfully engineered pieces. I am sorry this gentleman feels he can blame the demise of British engineering on the lack of proper toys for kids. Besides I was always a Tinker toy person myself.
The reason I stuck with learning python was the newsgroup comp.lang.python . If I din't understand something people would actually be helpful with a real answer. I tried that with perl and the response you get is RTFM. Well I RTFM and I still had quetions at least with the python people you get help.
. I'll upgrade when I'm ready to, and not a moment sooner."
Attitudes like that hinder progress. If you want to stay behind fine but don't expect the rest of us to wait for your stubborn ass. Change happens whether you care to be part of it or not.
You statement makes it sound like every web site should hold off on an upgrade until you have decided to upgrade. You don't own the web. If sites decide to change to a manner in which you can't view them but a majority of other people can you lose out not them.
I am not trolling here, we recently did an upgrade at the office and had a tech who said he wasn't going to help with upgrade, that he didn't want to do it. His reasons were nothing more than him being bullheaded. The upgrade wasn't going to make any dramtic changes to the system but it was going to make it easier for the main office to keep track of the invoices. He said the office should change not him.
He is now out of a job.
The invoicing gets out to our customers a lot quicker now.
As the owner of four ferel cats. I am not offended by the site I think it is pretty funny actually. The problem is you have a bunch of old bitties out there that do nothing but live to rescue and work and live with cats. Anybody who does anything slightly offensive to a cat goes on their shit list. Unfortunatly there are a lot of these cat people out there with no lives and nothing better to do then to complain to the government about how they were offended by this individual(s) web site. And these squeky wheels will get greased. Their message boards complain about how this site is becoming famous dispite their efforts. Well duh it was your efforts to report it the government and anybody who would listen to you. All I can say is thanks for spreading the word. I thought is was so funny that I sent the link to user friendly and weird earl.
The government will now spend your tax dollars and something completly frivolous. Keep it up you idiots, I like my cats but I don't recognize their exsistance as the be all to end all in the universe. Besides I have a shocker for you cat extremists, I also have a dog. That's right dogs and cats living together......mass hysteria. Now go clean your litter box.
If the work preformed justifies the reward the following are so simple but nice ways to do it.
1. Write a letter of commendation praising the excellent work done.Here's the trick don't use a form letter take the time to write one and actually sign it.
2. Have the the big wig boss make a personal apperance and thank the individual personally in a public forum. Nothing was a bigger head rush than the CEO of a major stock firm personally telling me he had heard about the work I had done and very pleased with the results at a major shindig. I was also told my contract would be renewed with an increase.
3. Money, This is always well received and fits all sizes. Stock options are ok but the consultant may also recognize that the company is going down the drain no matter how nice his work is and stock options may be worthless next week. Also Gift certificates work if cash is to avant guard. Be classy with them, a nice resturant, Theater,ect.
4. Referals, In a highly competive industry this may seem way out, but there are plenty of other businesses that work with other businesses in a symbitoc manner. The ISP buys there equipment from a supplier, Tell the supplier hey I have a great person doing some work for me, I think he can do great work for you.
5. Hey about a nice break from work,I live in Florida did a job and as a bonus got four one day passes to Disney. It wasn't a trip to Tahiti but cool just the same.
It is well and good that you want praise well done work never forger when doing that to add the personal touch of telling someone " You did a good job,and we appreciate that."
hemos: karma doesn't matter.
Read it people. You are getting worked up over B.S. You place so much emphasis on getting karma. People tend to look at this as the source for the latest and greatest information. Think about that \. is your source for serious news. And a place for your opinion to be taken seriously. Get a grip. If Cmdr Taco or Hemos call Sig 11 an idiot it's because that is how they feel. Sig 11 placed all this importance on moderation scores, when the two people responsibile for the sight place almost none on it. In the log it says contribute your opinion and move on.(paraphrased quote). You want high karma scores so you can moderate the rating of a post? And you take this so seriously that you are willing to scream and shout when it doesn't go just the way you want? And this is your version of professionalism? Slashdot is fun, accidentaly informative, and not to be taken as seriously as real news media. Come to slashdot and learn to enjoy and have fun. Post a comment with a nice link so Hemos can wallpaper his house with another Cease and Desist order. DeCSS Here
From the article>>>Yet HAL has inspired countless scientist to make fantasy a reality.
The article trying to fine line a debate between Bill Joy and Robert Freitas, but in the end shows it really doesn't matter.
As a young child enthralled with the neato stuff of Star Trek. I wanted to travel to space or be able to zap Klingons with Phasers. A later version of Cowboys and Indians. However I didn't that doesn't mean others didn't make jumps to bring fantasy into reality.
Deforest Kelly was always amazed by the fact that some of the fans of the show became real doctors.
The models have influence but if you limit yourself to just the vision of the model it won't work. In SciFi Models you lie on a chair and everything is diagnoist. MRI and CAT scans aren't quite that exact but their model was that chair.
But lets also give the model makers credit Arthur C. Clarke may not have invented AI but the communcation satalitte is his baby. Waterbeds invented by a sci-fi writer and there is even more of the same. How much of that became inspiration for their books? How much did those books influence others?
Sci-fi has also gone on to try and show the dangers of technology gone amuck as a warning for us to be prepared that a good idea may not be enough Issac Ashimov and the Laws of Robotics. When Michael Crichton wrote Jurrasic Park, He cited the fact that Genetic Reasearch was completly unregulated and that if something didn't change that fear would be the first reaction, the US government now holds a moritorium and genetic cloning. MC wrote that almost 10 years before the Clinton administration went into panic mode. How much good reasearch is now on hold because of fear? Then again how much of a fantasy was Dolly 10-15 years ago?
A lot of the true sceintfic community are sci-fi fans they just don't bring the whole idea to work with them they bring the dream that is inspired by it.
I don't disagree with you as a matter of opinion I agree with you completly. But also the governing bodies are not going to let small organizations use terroist type tactics(SF Cubans) to get what they want. I don't think Geeks are terroist but the Geek Culture is perceived by most of the populist as Hackers who break into systems, which is not fair to true Hackers or the Geek Culture.
Also a minority movement has to be well organized and focused on the goals they want. The Geek Culture can't even agree on a style of Linux(Red Hat, Debian, Suse,ect..). The Cubans had to much desencion in their ranks to be an effective movement in the case of Ellian. The Geek Culture is seperated by those who think that DeeCss,Napster,Gpl,ect are important and those who don't give a crap about them or care about one and not the others. The Geek Culture is just that a culture not a movement, not an effective voting block not unified in their beliefs, not vocal in their stance and not focused on their goals. Geeks are generally young and don't vote. How many lobbiest do senior citzens have through the AARP and other groups. I don't know for sure but I wonder if the EFF has any.
Look I don't think that what is happening is good but I think that it is way to late for much to happen. Once the internet became avalibile for common use the rules changed and the Geeks didn't work hard enough to protect it. The media camped out around Ellian's house for weeks. Where will the media camp out to protect DeeCss.
Having lived in South Florida for many years and being of Irish descent not Cuban. I learn a lot about cultures and different viewpoints. When Ellian Gonzolez was sent back to Cuba amid all the protests and picketing. I realized that you can have a thousand or more people screaming for change and it isn't enough. There are over 450 posts here already and none of them are going to make a difference against the juggernaut that is the judical system. The Cuban culture came away with a very bruised ego and hard dose of reality. Learning they don't have enough clout to make all the changes they want right or wrong. Geek culture egos are getting smashed also and in a more insidious way one legal step at a time. Your Ellian is the internet and it is going to Cuba and there is not a damn thing you can do about it. You are not a big enough majority you are a tiny minority that people don't understand, if you think otherwise than of course you completly understood the cuban population in south Florida.
The road to hell is paved with good intention. I have often head of the internet refered to as a superhighway that just means it will get you to hell a lot faster.
Wrong, They can cut down the amount that gets through a given material, Xrays even penetrate lead however the level is so low that is is virtually immesurable without precise measuring equipment.
Facilities are designed so that the operator, and bystanders, will recieve less than a specified dose per YEAR if they never move and the equipment is never turned off.
For nuclear reactor faclities this is very true it is not the standard used by NASA, medical faclities or portable personal care equipment. Each of which has very different standards set by different organizations.
Lead is a nice attenuator of X-rays, but other materials, such as cinder blocks, masonite etc, can do the same job if enough material is used.
And how thick are the concrete filled walls at a nuclear reactor? Not all walls are as thick nor are they always filled. The main problem here is that NASA was most likely using something stronger than the ordinary medical xray and the safety procedures were being overrode. That's not a healthy thing. One encounter may not be harmful to the indivdual, but those procedures are set up to prevent that.
Slashdot Mirror
SCO has launched at very little expense currently to themselves a successful FUD campaign. While the lawsuit may be expensive, considering lawyers fees, court costs, and other related items. The publicity campaign has been helped along by everyone protesting the actions being done by SCO.
I am looking at it from this perspective. The management types right now are going to think twice about using Linux and AIX. Think that is a ridiculous statement. Guess what, I have already been to three fortune 500 company meetings where questions were asked. IBM maintains many of the systems at these companies. And many of the companies have AIX systems currently. Some even have a long term plan in the works with IBM to upgrade in a couple of years to Linux based systems.
The questions being asked are some of the following types and yes I am paraphrasing:
What is the status of our current systems in regard to this issue of SCO claiming you have violated your contract with them?
How does this affect our long term plans?
What is being done by IBM to quickly resolve this issue?
Well the IBM reps answer these questions honestly. The problem is the FUD has already started to set in.
The management does not care about the truth in the long term. They care about the right now. And right now they are seeing a lot of press on the SCO issue and it doesn't seem to be going away. That is what will cause them to worry. They have to be able to tell their customers that they can service their needs and the customers are going to be the same attitude as the management. The customers want to know that the system that supports who they do business with is not in jeopardy. Right now it looks like it may be.
SCO may have no foundation for their claim, however before this is over they will have cost IBM money and they will have helped taint the image of Linux and other free software. And that is all they have to do.
FreeBSD is the prime example of this all you have to is look at the history of their lawsuit with AT&T to understand. FreeBSD would have had a much better market share today if not for that lawsuit.
While the SCO claim may have less validity than the AT&T suit. SCO has to only show one small line of code for them to turn around and say we were right.
Yes the line of code could be changed but by then the PR machine will have already dealt a heavy blow.
I think that this is going to drag out for a while and unless SCO is quickly put in their place the long drawn campaign will have been somewhat effective.
In 1999 the Savings Bank of Rockville placed an ad in the Connecticut Journal-Inquirer announcing that it would soon begin charging a $5 fee to customers who visited a live teller. The ad, which appeared on March 31, claimed that the fee was necessary in order to provide, "professional, caring and superior customer service." Although the ad was a joke, many customers failed to recognize it as such. One woman reportedly closed her account because of it. The bank then ran a second ad revealing that the initial ad was a joke. The bank manager commented that the first ad ironically "commits us to not charging such fees."
And how many banks now actually have these fees. No hoax.Well You could be so desperate as to have to document you unemployment. Now where is my coff-ay.
About a year ago a similar question came up on /. in the replies was a post about this company. 34sp is a British based host provider. They incredibly inexpensive.
About $21.00 a year for the minimum package. You can of course upgrade and pay more. Their email support has been good enough that I have never had to call them.
Congradulations. It is about time that the USA caught up with the advanced broadband policies of Australia. It took you a little while but we are glad to see we layed out a good foundation for you. We will send the baseball caps as needed.
Let's get some facts straight.
1. Janitors do not just push brooms.
2. 15.00 an hour is not enough for me to have to unclogged a public toilet.
3. Having to empty the garbage cans that end up getting filled with needles and other dangerous crap. Just to get it to the dumpster 15.00 isn't even close.
4. Having to paint the outside wall in the sun all day because you kid decided to show his spelling skills with a spray can. $15.00 doesn't begin to start to cover.
I have never been a janitor but I certainly appreciate what they have to put up with. And listening to people berate them and what they do shows how clueless people are.
Let me give you a clue here is a plunger. And if you think it is just like home unclogging a public toilet, why don't you volunteer.
Nurses and teachers may be the only ones on your list that deserve the high pay.
There is an open source alternative to flash. It is called Ming. Why not try it. Maybe help with it. And stop using Flash.
Let's understand something. You go to work to do work. That is what the company pays you for.
You want to check your personal e-mail do it at home. You want to shop do it on your own time without
company resources. Most businesses have a huge financial investment in the computer system in the office
plus the people needed to maintain and service it.
The system does not need extra expenses because you decided to check your e-mail and let some Trojan on
the system. The system does not need to be brought to a halt because you are using Bear Share to
download you latest soap opera or all the ping hits that come with using something like Bear Share.
The people employed to maintain the system are there to maintain the files keep good back up copies and
help you when the computer you are working on decides to have a hard drive die. There is enough
for the support staff to do normally without you making their job harder. Especially when they are
going into overtime because of somebody's stupid screw up.
And yes the company can put in all the things to help prevent a lot of this . They would be idiots not
to. But usually it is so unwanted outside issues can't come in. They don't need someone on the
inside helping them. Do your ebay shopping at home.
Think this is a rant from management, wrong. I am the guy who gets stuck having to work through the
weekend because somebody went on the IRC and decided yeah I will download this file of Hot Naked Young
Babes. You know the overtime is nice but I haven't mowed my lawn in two months because of it.
I must admit as kid building the kits and sometimes being creative
enough to make up my own designs was cool. I grew up and like many
people I put my Legos away except on special occasions. I do look now with
a great deal of envy toward peaple like Eric. I see him making
a living doing this sometimes on a grand scale. God I hate him. I work
in hell and he gets to play with legos all day.
Realizing that they called them "light sabers" and not "something else" sabers is why George is going after them but a search on google would keep George in court for a while. I realize that many of these sites have disclaimers and alter the names of their sabers so as to avoid the lawyers from Sith,Sith and Sith. Still I wouldn't mind having one of these
Well you don't have to belive the ice ages on this planet have happened recently and climate changes can be dramtic enough without undue influence from man . Besides that althou the planet is a couple of billion years old the exsistance of man on this planet is not. Man made pollutants have rendered areas unihabatible . These factors contribute to atmosphic pollutants which help the global warming isssue. The planet may exsist another couple of billion years. How ever it may not be able to support life. Humans should try to contribute to a continued exsistance and not a quick destruction.
Let us bring in the ideas by a man who has actually done some thing with legos. Eric Harshbarger. He has created the lego desk.I don't remember to many erector set desks. Eric has also managed to create many other wonderfully engineered pieces. I am sorry this gentleman feels he can blame the demise of British engineering on the lack of proper toys for kids. Besides I was always a Tinker toy person myself.
The reason I stuck with learning python was the newsgroup comp.lang.python . If I din't understand something people would actually be helpful with a real answer. I tried that with perl and the response you get is RTFM. Well I RTFM and I still had quetions at least with the python people you get help.
Attitudes like that hinder progress. If you want to stay behind fine but don't expect the rest of us to wait for your stubborn ass. Change happens whether you care to be part of it or not.
You statement makes it sound like every web site should hold off on an upgrade until you have decided to upgrade. You don't own the web. If sites decide to change to a manner in which you can't view them but a majority of other people can you lose out not them.
I am not trolling here, we recently did an upgrade at the office and had a tech who said he wasn't going to help with upgrade, that he didn't want to do it. His reasons were nothing more than him being bullheaded. The upgrade wasn't going to make any dramtic changes to the system but it was going to make it easier for the main office to keep track of the invoices. He said the office should change not him.
He is now out of a job.
The invoicing gets out to our customers a lot quicker now.
As the owner of four ferel cats. I am not offended by the site I think it is pretty funny actually. The problem is you have a bunch of old bitties out there that do nothing but live to rescue and work and live with cats. Anybody who does anything slightly offensive to a cat goes on their shit list. Unfortunatly there are a lot of these cat people out there with no lives and nothing better to do then to complain to the government about how they were offended by this individual(s) web site. And these squeky wheels will get greased. Their message boards complain about how this site is becoming famous dispite their efforts. Well duh it was your efforts to report it the government and anybody who would listen to you. All I can say is thanks for spreading the word. I thought is was so funny that I sent the link to user friendly and weird earl.
The government will now spend your tax dollars and something completly frivolous. Keep it up you idiots, I like my cats but I don't recognize their exsistance as the be all to end all in the universe. Besides I have a shocker for you cat extremists, I also have a dog. That's right dogs and cats living together......mass hysteria. Now go clean your litter box.
If the work preformed justifies the reward the following are so simple but nice ways to do it.
1. Write a letter of commendation praising the excellent work done.Here's the trick don't use a form letter take the time to write one and actually sign it.
2. Have the the big wig boss make a personal apperance and thank the individual personally in a public forum. Nothing was a bigger head rush than the CEO of a major stock firm personally telling me he had heard about the work I had done and very pleased with the results at a major shindig. I was also told my contract would be renewed with an increase.
3. Money, This is always well received and fits all sizes. Stock options are ok but the consultant may also recognize that the company is going down the drain no matter how nice his work is and stock options may be worthless next week. Also Gift certificates work if cash is to avant guard. Be classy with them, a nice resturant, Theater,ect.
4. Referals, In a highly competive industry this may seem way out, but there are plenty of other businesses that work with other businesses in a symbitoc manner. The ISP buys there equipment from a supplier, Tell the supplier hey I have a great person doing some work for me, I think he can do great work for you.
5. Hey about a nice break from work,I live in Florida did a job and as a bonus got four one day passes to Disney. It wasn't a trip to Tahiti but cool just the same.
It is well and good that you want praise well done work never forger when doing that to add the personal touch of telling someone " You did a good job,and we appreciate that."
Real simple solution.
Get DeCss
Please add your own mirros as needed.
hemos: karma doesn't matter.
Read it people. You are getting worked up over B.S. You place so much emphasis on getting karma. People tend to look at this as the source for the latest and greatest information. Think about that \. is your source for serious news. And a place for your opinion to be taken seriously. Get a grip. If Cmdr Taco or Hemos call Sig 11 an idiot it's because that is how they feel. Sig 11 placed all this importance on moderation scores, when the two people responsibile for the sight place almost none on it. In the log it says contribute your opinion and move on.(paraphrased quote). You want high karma scores so you can moderate the rating of a post? And you take this so seriously that you are willing to scream and shout when it doesn't go just the way you want? And this is your version of professionalism? Slashdot is fun, accidentaly informative, and not to be taken as seriously as real news media. Come to slashdot and learn to enjoy and have fun. Post a comment with a nice link so Hemos can wallpaper his house with another Cease and Desist order.
DeCSS Here
From the article>>>Yet HAL has inspired countless scientist to make fantasy a reality.
The article trying to fine line a debate between Bill Joy and Robert Freitas, but in the end shows it really doesn't matter.
As a young child enthralled with the neato stuff of Star Trek. I wanted to travel to space or be able to zap Klingons with Phasers. A later version of Cowboys and Indians. However I didn't that doesn't mean others didn't make jumps to bring fantasy into reality.
Deforest Kelly was always amazed by the fact that some of the fans of the show became real doctors.
The models have influence but if you limit yourself to just the vision of the model it won't work. In SciFi Models you lie on a chair and everything is diagnoist. MRI and CAT scans aren't quite that exact but their model was that chair.
But lets also give the model makers credit Arthur C. Clarke may not have invented AI but the communcation satalitte is his baby. Waterbeds invented by a sci-fi writer and there is even more of the same. How much of that became inspiration for their books? How much did those books influence others?
Sci-fi has also gone on to try and show the dangers of technology gone amuck as a warning for us to be prepared that a good idea may not be enough Issac Ashimov and the Laws of Robotics. When Michael Crichton wrote Jurrasic Park, He cited the fact that Genetic Reasearch was completly unregulated and that if something didn't change that fear would be the first reaction, the US government now holds a moritorium and genetic cloning. MC wrote that almost 10 years before the Clinton administration went into panic mode. How much good reasearch is now on hold because of fear? Then again how much of a fantasy was Dolly 10-15 years ago?
A lot of the true sceintfic community are sci-fi fans they just don't bring the whole idea to work with them they bring the dream that is inspired by it.
I don't disagree with you as a matter of opinion I agree with you completly. But also the governing bodies are not going to let small organizations use terroist type tactics(SF Cubans) to get what they want. I don't think Geeks are terroist but the Geek Culture is perceived by most of the populist as Hackers who break into systems, which is not fair to true Hackers or the Geek Culture.
Also a minority movement has to be well organized and focused on the goals they want. The Geek Culture can't even agree on a style of Linux(Red Hat, Debian, Suse,ect..). The Cubans had to much desencion in their ranks to be an effective movement in the case of Ellian. The Geek Culture is seperated by those who think that DeeCss,Napster,Gpl,ect are important and those who don't give a crap about them or care about one and not the others. The Geek Culture is just that a culture not a movement, not an effective voting block not unified in their beliefs, not vocal in their stance and not focused on their goals. Geeks are generally young and don't vote. How many lobbiest do senior citzens have through the AARP and other groups. I don't know for sure but I wonder if the EFF has any.
Look I don't think that what is happening is good but I think that it is way to late for much to happen. Once the internet became avalibile for common use the rules changed and the Geeks didn't work hard enough to protect it. The media camped out around Ellian's house for weeks. Where will the media camp out to protect DeeCss.
Having lived in South Florida for many years and being of Irish descent not Cuban. I learn a lot about cultures and different viewpoints. When Ellian Gonzolez was sent back to Cuba amid all the protests and picketing. I realized that you can have a thousand or more people screaming for change and it isn't enough. There are over 450 posts here already and none of them are going to make a difference against the juggernaut that is the judical system. The Cuban culture came away with a very bruised ego and hard dose of reality. Learning they don't have enough clout to make all the changes they want right or wrong. Geek culture egos are getting smashed also and in a more insidious way one legal step at a time. Your Ellian is the internet and it is going to Cuba and there is not a damn thing you can do about it. You are not a big enough majority you are a tiny minority that people don't understand, if you think otherwise than of course you completly understood the cuban population in south Florida.
The road to hell is paved with good intention. I have often head of the internet refered to as a superhighway that just means it will get you to hell a lot faster.
You do is kill all the lawyers.
Attributed to Will S.
True however RMS went to ends of the earth to praise Gnome and condem KDE. Read:
- 09-05-001-21-OP-LF-KE
http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000
I'm just about finished with it, and will be doing a review soon - it's quite good.
Well hell I don't need a review now.
Ordinary materials can stop X-rays
Wrong, They can cut down the amount that gets through a given material, Xrays even penetrate lead however the level is so low that is is virtually immesurable without precise measuring equipment.
Facilities are designed so that the operator, and bystanders, will recieve less than a specified dose per YEAR if they never move and the equipment is never turned off.
For nuclear reactor faclities this is very true it is not the standard used by NASA, medical faclities or portable personal care equipment. Each of which has very different standards set by different organizations.
Lead is a nice attenuator of X-rays, but other materials, such as cinder blocks, masonite etc, can do the same job if enough material is used.
And how thick are the concrete filled walls at a nuclear reactor? Not all walls are as thick nor are they always filled. The main problem here is that NASA was most likely using something stronger than the ordinary medical xray and the safety procedures were being overrode. That's not a healthy thing. One encounter may not be harmful to the indivdual, but those procedures are set up to prevent that.
Jane Fonda in zero G will always be better