Yes, it does read 'dai katana'... and from what I can tell (my Japanese isn't too great, but it's.. well, okay) it does mean something along the lines of big knife/big blade.
and as an answer to your second question, Japanese Kanji characters are not only one syllable... as shown by the second kanji on the box reading 'katana'.
anyone feel free to correct me if I've gotten anything wrong, I'm not an expert on the Japanese language, but I think that's how it goes.
-- Dr. Eldarion -- It's not what it is, it's something else.
HDTV really isn't going to take off until it's affordable. I mean, come on, who is going to pay over $5000 just for a little better resolution. Only people with large sums of money to blow, really...
Until a good portion of the population can afford them, it won't really go anywhere, most likely.
-- Dr. Eldarion -- It's not what it is, it's something else.
Don't blame it on Jeeves, blame it on the people that Jeeves asks... Altavista, Yahoo, Excite... It doesn't seem like the big J does much of his own work... he just asks other sites.
My favorite thing to do has always been singing to them... It gives the people who are calling you a bit of a laugh (face it, it's usually not *THEIR* fault you're getting called... they're just people doing their jobs to get a paycheck... it's the companies that hire them that are evil) and they usually get the hint that you don't want to buy anything...
Another thing that works well is saying "No, I would not like to [switch my long distance carrier/buy any magazines/subscribe to a nespaper], but, hey, as long as I have you on the line, would you like to buy (insert object here)?
and if all else fails, I have a modem hooked up to my voice line that I never use... a little "ATA" usually does the trick.
This could be a problem if the 15 year old Linux zealot lives alone, but I doubt that. For all the company knows, this could be his dad, his mom, his sister, his grandma, his friend, or even a burglar breaking into his house watching the programs... now, unless you have to log into the damn thing, it would be impossible to detect who exactly was watching it.
Isn't the whole argument against DVD based on the way they're trying to control how we view the discs that *WE BOUGHT*? Now, if the S/W DVD wasn't encrypted and didn't have region codes, this wouldn't be an issue... but you can bet your pants that it will.
Does anyone else find it kinda hypocritical how/. is always so much against the MPAA and telling us to boycott them and the like, but then when news like this comes up, it creates such an excitement? "WOO! The DVD! Now I can go support the people who I was just saying are trying to screw us over!"
Pick a side, stay there... don't jump back and forth.
I imagine the reason the San Diego ISP banned Napster users is not just the bandwidth issue, but that they don't want to be held liable for the illegal activity that takes place.
If I'm not mistaken, there's a clause in some law that says service providers aren't liable for things done on their servers. However, with all the lawsuits recently, I'm starting to wonder if having the law there even matters.
The suit says students who use Napster "exhibit the moral fiber of common looters."
How much more of a generalization could you make? This is like saying "everyone who owns a crowbar is breaking into someones house every night". There *ARE* people who use Napster for legit reasons. There *IS* a lot of stuff on Napster that you can't FIND anywhere else, because Napster is the only place it's distributed. There are plenty of uses for Napster, trading copyrighted songs is just one of them.
(and before all you yell at me, I *KNOW* the majority of people on Napster use it for "illegit" purposes, but there *ARE* people who don't)
The anonymity Gnutella provides may unfortunately promote such behavior, but the good outweighs the bad, he said: "The whole decentralized aspect of it... There's no censorship at all. [emphasis added]
Hm, I wonder what the government and big businesses think about *that*. They can no longer keep us from viewing the things that they don't think we should look at... and they can't really track us down very easily if they find us viewing such "contraband"...
Then there are the possible lawsuits. The Plinkertons are opening themselves up for major lawsuits if they persue this and ANYONE gets screwed over injustly. Admittedly those likely to to sue will be conspicuously absent from any school diciplinary action no matter the offense.
We could probably set something like this up. Find a straight-A kid who's never done anything bad in his life, and who has a good lawyer as a relative (no legal fees!). See if they'll go along with it, then have 15 or 20 people report this kid as dangerous...
The kid gets dragged off, the relative represents him for free, and they prove that this kid is 'perfect'.
Maybe then Pinkerton will realize what the hell they're doing.
This is really too bad that it has to happen to Amazon... It creates such a conflict. As much as I'd like to see Amazon get smited by the very thing they're dishing out, any victory in one of these "stupid patent" cases is just plain ridiculous.
Seriously, though. I know it may seem as though I'm fiercely defending the guy... that's not really the case. I'm not that fond of him and his corporation, but he *DID* do a good thing, and we should give him credit for it.
Yes, maybe the education donations are a bit conditional, but what about the other ones? He's given $100 million to immunize kids in other countries, he's given over 2.2 billion to the William H. Gates foundation, a foundation which "provides grants in the areas of world health and population, education, and services"...
look here if you want, http://www.seattleinsider.com/technology/news/1999 /02/05/gates_donation.html
I'm just saying that he *HAS* done some good things among the long list of nasty ones.
Does it really matter what percentage it is? He's still giving money to good causes, and it's a LOT of money. This is a good thing no matter how much of his wealth it represents.
How about the companies that recently gave away computers to their employees? I seem to remember at least two different companies doing this (one being Ford if I remember correctly...)
I'm not sure about Dell, but our (*ahem*) good friend Bill G. has given extremely large quantities of money to charity. Guess the guy isn't ALL bad... just mostly;)
Will there be a service that we can call to report this, like there is with e-mail? Will we be able to find out who these people are and prosecute them?
I think maybe it would be a better idea just to have the cell phone co. clean their act up a bit to prevent it in the first place...
Think MS knows that many people consider them the Great Satan??
Many people reading Slashdot, maybe. How many people in the normal population have this view, though? I'll give you a clue, it's somewhere in the single digits.
The unfortunate truth is that "normal" people consider MicroSoft to be gods. They see Bill's incredible success and marvel at it. They see the newest version of Windows and stand bug-eyed when they see their start menu fade in.
My father was even saying how unfortunate it is that MS is even involved in the anti-trust case at all. Lets face it, the general population really doesn't know what's going on... not that they have to, though. Windows is good enough for their means, and it's relatively easy to use. As long as this holds true, their opinion of MS is not going to change, no matter what happens.
I don't know of anyone of the opposite-sex who met someone online and decided to be friends.
Really? I know plenty of females who met people online and decided to be friends with them. I haven't, however, seen much of the other way around. Sure, some men will talk to each other online every once in a while, but how many of them will get together and hang out?
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, it does read 'dai katana'... and from what I can tell (my Japanese isn't too great, but it's.. well, okay) it does mean something along the lines of big knife/big blade.
and as an answer to your second question, Japanese Kanji characters are not only one syllable... as shown by the second kanji on the box reading 'katana'.
anyone feel free to correct me if I've gotten anything wrong, I'm not an expert on the Japanese language, but I think that's how it goes.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
It's not what it is, it's something else.
HDTV really isn't going to take off until it's affordable. I mean, come on, who is going to pay over $5000 just for a little better resolution. Only people with large sums of money to blow, really...
Until a good portion of the population can afford them, it won't really go anywhere, most likely.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
It's not what it is, it's something else.
Yes, they did... and I must say they did a rather good job on it, too.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
It's not what it is, it's something else.
Don't blame it on Jeeves, blame it on the people that Jeeves asks... Altavista, Yahoo, Excite... It doesn't seem like the big J does much of his own work... he just asks other sites.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
My favorite thing to do has always been singing to them... It gives the people who are calling you a bit of a laugh (face it, it's usually not *THEIR* fault you're getting called... they're just people doing their jobs to get a paycheck... it's the companies that hire them that are evil) and they usually get the hint that you don't want to buy anything...
Another thing that works well is saying "No, I would not like to [switch my long distance carrier/buy any magazines/subscribe to a nespaper], but, hey, as long as I have you on the line, would you like to buy (insert object here)?
and if all else fails, I have a modem hooked up to my voice line that I never use... a little "ATA" usually does the trick.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
This could be a problem if the 15 year old Linux zealot lives alone, but I doubt that. For all the company knows, this could be his dad, his mom, his sister, his grandma, his friend, or even a burglar breaking into his house watching the programs... now, unless you have to log into the damn thing, it would be impossible to detect who exactly was watching it.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
So why boycott them?
Because it's still on DVD.
Isn't the whole argument against DVD based on the way they're trying to control how we view the discs that *WE BOUGHT*? Now, if the S/W DVD wasn't encrypted and didn't have region codes, this wouldn't be an issue... but you can bet your pants that it will.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Does anyone else find it kinda hypocritical how /. is always so much against the MPAA and telling us to boycott them and the like, but then when news like this comes up, it creates such an excitement? "WOO! The DVD! Now I can go support the people who I was just saying are trying to screw us over!"
Pick a side, stay there... don't jump back and forth.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Hey, it's kinda like giving her the online equivalent of 'birthday spankings'.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
I imagine the reason the San Diego ISP banned Napster users is not just the bandwidth issue, but that they don't want to be held liable for the illegal activity that takes place.
If I'm not mistaken, there's a clause in some law that says service providers aren't liable for things done on their servers. However, with all the lawsuits recently, I'm starting to wonder if having the law there even matters.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
The suit says students who use Napster "exhibit the moral fiber of common looters."
How much more of a generalization could you make? This is like saying "everyone who owns a crowbar is breaking into someones house every night". There *ARE* people who use Napster for legit reasons. There *IS* a lot of stuff on Napster that you can't FIND anywhere else, because Napster is the only place it's distributed. There are plenty of uses for Napster, trading copyrighted songs is just one of them.
(and before all you yell at me, I *KNOW* the majority of people on Napster use it for "illegit" purposes, but there *ARE* people who don't)
-- Dr. Eldarion --
The anonymity Gnutella provides may unfortunately promote such behavior, but the good outweighs the bad, he said: "The whole decentralized aspect of it ... There's no censorship at all. [emphasis added]
Hm, I wonder what the government and big businesses think about *that*. They can no longer keep us from viewing the things that they don't think we should look at... and they can't really track us down very easily if they find us viewing such "contraband"...
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Then there are the possible lawsuits. The Plinkertons are opening themselves up for major lawsuits if they persue this and ANYONE gets screwed over injustly. Admittedly those likely to to sue will be conspicuously absent from any school diciplinary action no matter the offense.
We could probably set something like this up. Find a straight-A kid who's never done anything bad in his life, and who has a good lawyer as a relative (no legal fees!). See if they'll go along with it, then have 15 or 20 people report this kid as dangerous...
The kid gets dragged off, the relative represents him for free, and they prove that this kid is 'perfect'.
Maybe then Pinkerton will realize what the hell they're doing.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
This is really too bad that it has to happen to Amazon... It creates such a conflict. As much as I'd like to see Amazon get smited by the very thing they're dishing out, any victory in one of these "stupid patent" cases is just plain ridiculous.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
aww, but I don't WANT to take it out..
Seriously, though. I know it may seem as though I'm fiercely defending the guy... that's not really the case. I'm not that fond of him and his corporation, but he *DID* do a good thing, and we should give him credit for it.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
From what I've read, he's given away at least $5 billion... that's hardly anything to laugh at, even if it is only 1/26th of his wealth.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Who really cares if the charity is for good press? It's still money going to a good cause, right? Isn't that the only thing that counts?
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Yes, maybe the education donations are a bit conditional, but what about the other ones? He's given $100 million to immunize kids in other countries, he's given over 2.2 billion to the William H. Gates foundation, a foundation which "provides grants in the areas of world health and population, education, and services"...
9 /02/05/gates_donation.html
look here if you want, http://www.seattleinsider.com/technology/news/199
I'm just saying that he *HAS* done some good things among the long list of nasty ones.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Does it really matter what percentage it is? He's still giving money to good causes, and it's a LOT of money. This is a good thing no matter how much of his wealth it represents.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
How about the companies that recently gave away computers to their employees? I seem to remember at least two different companies doing this (one being Ford if I remember correctly...)
-- Dr. Eldarion --
I'm not sure about Dell, but our (*ahem*) good friend Bill G. has given extremely large quantities of money to charity. Guess the guy isn't ALL bad... just mostly ;)
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Will there be a service that we can call to report this, like there is with e-mail? Will we be able to find out who these people are and prosecute them?
I think maybe it would be a better idea just to have the cell phone co. clean their act up a bit to prevent it in the first place...
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Think MS knows that many people consider them the Great Satan??
Many people reading Slashdot, maybe. How many people in the normal population have this view, though? I'll give you a clue, it's somewhere in the single digits.
The unfortunate truth is that "normal" people consider MicroSoft to be gods. They see Bill's incredible success and marvel at it. They see the newest version of Windows and stand bug-eyed when they see their start menu fade in.
My father was even saying how unfortunate it is that MS is even involved in the anti-trust case at all. Lets face it, the general population really doesn't know what's going on... not that they have to, though. Windows is good enough for their means, and it's relatively easy to use. As long as this holds true, their opinion of MS is not going to change, no matter what happens.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
I don't know of anyone of the opposite-sex who met someone online and decided to be friends.
Really? I know plenty of females who met people online and decided to be friends with them. I haven't, however, seen much of the other way around. Sure, some men will talk to each other online every once in a while, but how many of them will get together and hang out?
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Anything to *ADD*? You'll be passed out on the floor after the first couple of paragraphs with those two rules alone...
-- Dr. Eldarion --