Sounds similar to Larry Niven's essay, "The Roentgen Standard (Yet another Modest Proposal)"... He was satirizing the idea that money has no value if it's not being constantly circulated. The solution? Make the money out of radioactive waste, so everybody tries to get rid of any cash they have on hand as quickly as possible...
We're not talking wrongful conviction here, guy. We're talking wrongful death with no process whatsoever, much less a jury trial. Amadou Diallo, Timothy Thomas, etc. didn't get due process before being executed by the state...
Man, if your family subsists on coca plants, you've got a dietary problem. That being said, not bothering to check whether or not the crops are actually coca or not is inexcusable, but if you mix the coca cash crop in with your family veggies to try to keep from getting unfriendly attention, you pretty much get what you asked for.
(Disclaimer: I'd rather see a regulated market for narcotics than a police state where senior citizens can get themselves killed in a bungled bust attempt. But such is life.)
I just find it truly ironic that an article that ends with the dangers of the DMCA and bemoans the current state of copyright law was publichsed by MSNBC... Don't tell me that MS couldn't do some really "nifty" (for their bottom line) things with DMCA powers...
"The difference here is that they tracked--and then they fined--people without properly notifying them."
Not to defend Acme on this one, but NPR did an interview with their lawyer, and he said that the notice was displayed clearly across the top of the renter's agreement...
What I don't understand is why the state DOT doesn't set up fake radar emitters every few miles or so... Can't be that expensive to do these days, and you could probably run each of them off its own solar array. If you want to put a cop out to monitor speeds on one section, turn off the emitter and let him use his onboard radar. It'd make radar detectors useless... But I guess it's easier to try to solve a technological problem through legal means instead. *grumble*
Did the TOS include the "seller reserves the right to change TOS with or without notice" clause? If so, I think you're probably SOL. They followed the letter of the contract...
Not to say that they're not total asswipes for putting such a clause in a contract to begin with... But that's a more general problem that society's going to have to deal with.
Looking at the links... EtherApe is based on EtherMan (get it?) and although I couldn't get the link to come up within my attention-deficit maximum waiting period, I'd suspect that ToutDoux is a play on ToutSuite. Although i have no idea if there's a poject out there called ToutSuite, it sounds like something somebody sutitably versed in French might choose to call an integrated collection of programs...
Just felt like playng DA.
--Fesh
Re:Bacteria are NOT a good idea, IMHO...
on
Eco-Terrorism
·
· Score: 2
What part of the phrase "reversible reaction" don't you understand? The bacteria were adding energy to the reaction (and eating other stuff), pushing the equilibrium towards the salt form. Then they figured out that they could gain energy from running the reaction in the other direction. Maybe you ought to bone up on your chemistry...
Although you're right about the actual reaction being screwy (like it's that easy to get rid of polychlorinated hydrocarbons), but if some genetic engineer spliced up a bug in this fashion, I'd be willing to bet a lot that it'd mutate to take advantage of the energy gain pretty damned quickly. The moral of the story is that if you don't think through the possible consequences before doing something, you're gonna get your ass burned.
--Fesh
Re:The only thing that helps is taxes
on
Eco-Terrorism
·
· Score: 2
I think that was kinda his point... He was looking to be a martyr, and his own death was his ultimate objective. The government happily obliged him on that one, and the media played right along blissfully unaware that he got the last laugh...
He did an unspeakable evil, no doubt about it. But the way his execution was covered by the media played right into his hands, in my opinion. I for one, had no pressing need to know where they stuck the fucking needle!
--Fesh
Re:Bacteria are NOT a good idea, IMHO...
on
Eco-Terrorism
·
· Score: 2
Neal Stephenson covered this in Zodiac... Some company decided to make a bug that ate PCBs and turned the covalent chlorine into ionic chlorine... Problem is, the bugs mutated and the chemical reaction went in the other direction, making polychlorinated hydrocarbons out of the salt in seawater...
Probably not one of his best, but still good for its ability to make you think about things.
By the way, and totally off on a tangent... Are there any Neal Stephenson books that don't involve large boats as a major plot device?
--Fesh
Re:Vigilantes aren't all bad.
on
Eco-Terrorism
·
· Score: 3
Furthermore, we have interesting statistics which tells us that in situations where guns are fired, armed citizens are significantly less likely to shoot the wrong person than police officers.
Doesn't surprise me. The number of individual armed citizens with a whole station worth of police oficers to back them up if they kill somebody wrongly is rather low. The average armed citizen has far more liability to worry about than the average LEO does. Behavior follows suit.
--Fesh
Re:You are a truly sick individual
on
Eco-Terrorism
·
· Score: 2
Instead, you'd rather kill me out of some feeling that I get what I deserve when you run my car the fuck over with your road tank? Geez... Pot, meet kettle.
If I ever hear tell of a police officer offering a sincere apology for anything (even when they know they screwed up), I'll be shocked dumb. That sort of thing just doesn't happen.
Why shouldn't the term "organized crime" apply to Microsoft? They're an organization, and they've engaged in and continue to engage in criminal behavior (as per the Finding of Fact). Just because they're a corporation doesn't mean that they haven't used the benefits of hierarchical organization to more efficiently gain benefit from criminal activities. It should be just as illegal for a company to run a protection racket (Windows licensing on bare systems, anyone? "Pay us or bad stuff will happen.") as it is for a Mafia Don to do so.
I think the definition of "organized crime" needs to be broadened to mean more than just the Mafia... The shoe seems to fit corporations such as Microsoft just as well. Bonus points for RICO action on them (not that that will happen with the current political environment)...
--Fesh
Re:Good story, but they left out one thing...
on
Fortune on Rambus
·
· Score: 2
Well, write 'em a letter. Maybe it'll get into the "Letters to the Editor" section... Fortune is a magazine, after all... That's what the LTE is for, eh?
Interesting question, that... If you're of the opinion that links are content, then was the MPAA justified in insisting that 2600 not link directly to DeCSS, as they would still have been hosting "illegal" content?
I think this brings up a broader question... To what extent are links content? Can we say without contradiction that the MPAA and Microsoft are both wrong? Call it Western dualism, but I'd have to say no, on the balance...
Slashdot Mirror
*chuckle* It's a hoot to read.
--Fesh
--Fesh
(Disclaimer: I'd rather see a regulated market for narcotics than a police state where senior citizens can get themselves killed in a bungled bust attempt. But such is life.)
--Fesh
--Fesh
--Fesh
Not to defend Acme on this one, but NPR did an interview with their lawyer, and he said that the notice was displayed clearly across the top of the renter's agreement...
--Fesh
--Fesh
Not to say that they're not total asswipes for putting such a clause in a contract to begin with... But that's a more general problem that society's going to have to deal with.
--Fesh
Just felt like playng DA.
--Fesh
Although you're right about the actual reaction being screwy (like it's that easy to get rid of polychlorinated hydrocarbons), but if some genetic engineer spliced up a bug in this fashion, I'd be willing to bet a lot that it'd mutate to take advantage of the energy gain pretty damned quickly. The moral of the story is that if you don't think through the possible consequences before doing something, you're gonna get your ass burned.
--Fesh
He did an unspeakable evil, no doubt about it. But the way his execution was covered by the media played right into his hands, in my opinion. I for one, had no pressing need to know where they stuck the fucking needle!
--Fesh
Probably not one of his best, but still good for its ability to make you think about things.
By the way, and totally off on a tangent... Are there any Neal Stephenson books that don't involve large boats as a major plot device?
--Fesh
Doesn't surprise me. The number of individual armed citizens with a whole station worth of police oficers to back them up if they kill somebody wrongly is rather low. The average armed citizen has far more liability to worry about than the average LEO does. Behavior follows suit.
--Fesh
--Fesh
--Fesh
--Fesh
--Fesh
--Fesh
--Fesh
And for the commercial... "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful... Hate me for ripping your heart out with a rusty spoon and spitting on it."
What, me bitter? Nah...
--Fesh
1) Kernel developed by Linus Torvalds and others 2) Shell of user's choice (csh, bash, ksh, etc.) 3) GNU toolset.
That's it folks. Anything else you get is at the whim of the distributor.
--Fesh
I think the definition of "organized crime" needs to be broadened to mean more than just the Mafia... The shoe seems to fit corporations such as Microsoft just as well. Bonus points for RICO action on them (not that that will happen with the current political environment)...
--Fesh
--Fesh
"Broccoli is getting pissed!!!"
*chuckle*
--Fesh
I think this brings up a broader question... To what extent are links content? Can we say without contradiction that the MPAA and Microsoft are both wrong? Call it Western dualism, but I'd have to say no, on the balance...
--Fesh