First of all, I think that it's highly unlikely that Blizzard will learn anything from other games that are out there. Their history simply doesn't support that conclusion. There are plenty of third-person perspective RPGs in the world, many of which have features that would make Diablo II an absolute joy to play. How about being able to bind more skills/spells to hotkeys? How about being able to zoom in and out? How about being able to rotate your view so you can actually see behind the fscking walls? Every one of these is a feature of Diablo style games that came out a year or more before Diablo II, and yet Blizzard learned nothing from them. Instead they put out the exact same game as Diablo I with slightly upgraded graphics and a slightly different storyline, just as they have with Warcraft/Starcraft.
As you point out, Halflife has been out for years, and yet Blizzard has obviously learned nothing from it's mind-boggling success and longevity.
I have to admit, though, that I've had a low opinion of Blizzard ever since their (totally ineffective) copy protection prevented me from being able to run my (completely legal) copy of D2 from my DVD drive, thus forcing me to deal with the painfully long load times from my aged 4x8x CD-R (that's right, no RW. It's that old). Their response? Basically "Uh, sorry". When the LoD expansion came out, I discovered it had the same problem.
I don't mind copy protection as long as it doesn't interfere with the use of a legally purchased product. I don't even mind having to put the CD in the drive even though I generally do a full install. But when the product won't work on my hardware for no apparent reason other than flawed copy protection? That's irritating.
Sorry about the rant. I'll move on now.
My second point is that the bnetd people haven't done anything illegal, unless Blizzard is claiming ownership of packets moving through my network. Reverse engineering of protocols is still legal. If Blizzard had let the bnetd guys look at their server source code, or if the bnetd guys had somehow obtained a copy and perhaps decompiled it, then I would see Blizzards point. That isn't the case though. All the bnetd guys did was inspect packets travelling through their own networks to reverse engineer the protocols, and then create a work-alike server. All of this is completely legal, and, since none of Blizzards actual code is used, in no way infringes Blizzards copyrights.
At best Blizzard could have claims under Trade Secret laws or perhaps Patent law if they patented their protocols. Under Copyright I frankly don't see how they have a leg to stand on, and therefore I must conclude that Blizzard is depending on the fact that the bnetd developers won't have enough money to defend themselves. In otherwords, they are using bully tactics to supress something that is perfectly legal.
I thought the whole thing was pretty funny, although I'm surprised that the Mac Bible wasn't mentioned in any of the Addendums. Or even the Mac Bible, for that matter. Obviously anything that promises to "revolutionize the way you study the Scriptures" must be corrupt!
My personal favorite quote:
Hypnotically encased iMacs trick unsuspecting computer users into accepting Darwinism
I almost fell out of my chair when I read that!
The part about Pagans being notoriously bad spellers was pretty funny, too.
No, that was how Intel did it with the first Celerons. The Durons are actually a different chip made in a seperate process from the Athlons. The Duron "crippling" is by design in order to save on die size.
Re:Screw rebooting, there're other advantages
on
No More Rebooting?
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· Score: 2
If this tech can really replace and even surpass in speed, Hard Disk Drives, reliability and performance should make a gain of at least an order of magnitude.
Replacing HDDs in terms of speed/performance/reliability is easy, and there are any number of currently available technologies that fit the bill. The reason HDDs still exist is because nothing else even comes close to in terms of price/capacity.
SuSE had no problem with my USB keyboard and mouse. I was suprised at that, actually, since the keyboard is an SGI and I had a hard time getting it to work in Windows.
The one downside That I've noticed is that when KDE locks up I lose keyboard functionality, which forces me to hit the reset button instead of just killing X. Generally it's not that big of a deal, since (a) I'm rarely do anything with my computer that's actually important, and (b) I use reiserfs, but it does take some time to reboot and that's kind of annoying.
I suspect I could probably fix it by compiling a kernel with USB not a module, but I seem to be bad at compiling kernels. I've only ever compiled one that worked, and it had support for basically nothing.
Yes, I know it's not that hard. I don't know what's wrong with me...
Now, why someone would want to remove IE and Windows Media Player is beyond me.
For the same reasons I don't install X-Windows on my Linux servers: It's totally unnecessary in that application. All it would do is use up resources that are better used for, say, the purpose the server is intended to perform.
For people who don't intend to use their machines to play media files or browse the web, WMP and IE fall into that same catagory. MS isn't going far enough, IMHO. I'll be impressed when they let me run their product with no GUI installed (which, BTW, is why your sig is completely stupid).
A company can be only an hour or 2 out of the "premier" tech areas in CA and spend 1/4 of the amount on rent. Why a startup would even think about office space in San Jose or San Diego is totally beyond my comprehension.
There is no way the paperless office will become a reality until those of us who have grown up with computers (i.e. under 30*) are the dominant force in business. The simple fact is that the vast majority people older than that aren't comfortable enough with computers to give up their precious paper.
My first tech job was a serious wakeup call for me in this respect. I was the youngest tech on the floor, and one of the 10 (out of maybe 40 techs) who didn't print out my email to read it. These were people who lived and breathed tech! My night shift counterpart and I (the only techs under 30) achieved a paperless bay and reaped the troubleshooting benefits of a searchable bay log. People were blown away by how much easier things were, but they couldn't seem to pry themselves away from the little used composition books that every other test bay used.
I could go on and on about my experiences there, but what it comes down to is that the age groups that are dominant in business today are firmly entrenched in paper, and the paperless office will never have a chance until they are replaced by people young enough to not understand the purpose of white-out.
*That's the cutoff point according to my experience. If you are over 30 and comfortable functioning without paper, I applaud you. Please don't be offended.
There is nothing wrong with making it easier for someone to work the cash registers. There's nothing wrong with shortening the learning curve by putting pictures of the items on the buttons. There's nothing wrong with speeding up the job by not making the clerks have to calculate the change. There's nothing wrong with reducing the risk of errors by spitting the change out automatically.
But there is something wrong with becoming dependent on machines to do simple tasks like making change, which is all to often the case. That's why your father is right and you are wrong.
Now, using a calculator in engineering school is fine. If you've made it to engineering school you know the math already and you're just learning applications. You don't have time to mess around with log tables. Hell, I failed a statics test because my calculator died and I simply didn't have time to work out the problems without it. Talk about a crappy way to fail a test!
On the other hand, the fact that my 12 year old brother is allowed (encouraged, even) to use a calculator in class makes me sick. He's supposed to be learning math, but instead he's just learning to punch a sequence of buttons that will hopefully give him the correct answer (assuming, of course, that he's using the same brand of calculator that he was taught in school). There is absolutely no reason that kids learning how to reduce fractions should be allowed to use calculators. He's fortunate that our dad is as much of a hardass as yours probably is and doesn't let him use one on his homework. (My brother disagrees on this point of course, but he'll also be a step ahead of his classmates who aren't so lucky.)
Remember the term Garbage In, Garbage Out? How do you know you're getting garbage if you don't know the math well enough to know what to expect? Why would you even think to question the results when you've been taught to trust the calculator since the 3rd grade? Is that really how we want to teach our future engineers?
Perhaps you could take something simple like, say, an RFC and do a Flash version to show us how it's better?
Or even better, perhaps he could tell us how this was enhanced by being all flash. (Yes, I know they claim it's a spoof, but that's entirely irrelevant here.)
I've visited a few flash-only sites, and have found every single one of them extremely irritating. Not one that I've seen allows me to scroll using my mouse wheel. A few have allowed the user to grab-and-drag the scroll bar, but most don't even recognize the arrow buttons, thus forcing the user into RSI by clicking the stupid up/down arrows (conveniently spaced as far apart as possible) a billion times per page to read the complete text. Resizing the window doesn't help, of course, since flash doesn't shape itself to fit the window like good old HTML.
Yup, that's what I call "Accessibility".
Seriously, if they can't make it acessible for a normal, able-bodied person like myself, why should I believe they'll do a better job for the disabled? Don't get me wrong, flash has it's place, but that place is definately NOT as a replacement for HTML.
The enterprise desktop leads to the home desktop. Most people want to run the same OS at home that they do at work, mostly because that's what they know. They also want to be able to take their work home with them and work on it at home (God only knows why). Every person I've built a computer for that had a job has felt this way (those who didn't just wanted to play games, including my grandmother).
Remember all the Euros getting in a huff last year about echelon? There is a lot of suspicion in the rest of the world that MS software contains NSA backdoors. That's the main reason any foreign government would be interested in Open Source Software.
You're right, in China all OSs are free as in beer. It's the Free as in Speech part that lets them ensure they aren't being spied on.
That's like saying it's legal for me to steal your CDs because you left your car windows down. That would certainly be easy (far easier than examining packets in a router since anyone can do it), but easy is not the same as legal.
The only thing non-obvious about this case is whether reading someone elses email is illegal like tapping a phone without a warrant or illegal like opening someone else's snail mail.
There are some legal issues with kites at any significant altitude. I don't recall the details as it's bee a few years since I worked in the Kite Industry, but it's an FAA thing.
So, in other words, capitalism should apply only to those things that people don't actually need? That is, of course, ridiculous: capitalism's power to provide the best goods and services at the lowest cost works especially well when the service or good is a necessity.
Substitute Free Market for Capitalism and I will agree with you. They are not the same thing.
Capitalism is about amassing Capital, and it is driven by the producer. "Providing the best goods and services at the lowest cost" is one potential means to that end, though it is very rarely employed by a Capitalist entity. Quality raises costs, after all, and raised costs lower profits. Lower profits mean less Capital amassed, which is contrary to the basis of Capitalism.
The Free Market, however, is driven by the Consumer, who obviously wants to get the most for his money. This introduces motives which are directly opposed to Capitalism, like Yin and Yang.
In many ways they are two sides of the same coin, and I don't advocate the overthrow of Capitalism. My purpose is mostly educational.
Why? Because the demand is inelastic. When demand for something is inelastic, competition between companies goes up quickly because newcomers know that the demand for the good or service they are about to provide will not disappear suddenly. This increase in competition has the effect of reducing the price.
In a situation where the good or service is a Need, it may be true that competition is increased because of the reasons you list. However, it is NOT true that this competition will decrease price. That assumption is based on basic supply and demand, which is essentially inapplicable in the case of a basic Need. As you point out, the demand will not disappear, and in all likelyness it will not even be significantly reduced. Therefore, there is no economic reason for a price reduction unless one party is not satisfied with their marketshare. In this situation, however, it is far more common for the "competitors" to work out a pricefixing deal. They know that the consumer will pay what they charge because the consumer can't live without whatever they are selling. Since the demand curve is horizontal, the price curve can be placed wherever the supplier wants and they will still make money. This is known as "pricegouging".
Hey, I notice an interesting parallel that lots of people are
simultaneously pissed off about how much all of these following things
cost: prescription drugs, electricity (in California), and gas
(everywhere). In all cases those people think it's morally wrong for
the suppliers of these things to make a profit because we "need" those
things so much. But... isn't that the whole point of a market economy,
that you make money selling stuff people actually need?
Your friend Bill has apparently mistaken the market economy for a system based on morality. Yes, it is good when people can make money selling stuff people need, but when prices are driven so high that people can't afford their basic needs there is a problem. When that situation is caused by the producers desire to make more money (as is the case with prescription drugs and electricity in CA), rather than an actual increased cost to provide the good or service, it is called greed. When people die because of someone elses greed, it is morally wrong.
I would like to point out to you and Bill that it was only customers of private utility companies that truely suffered in CA, whereas customers of publicly owned utilities (like SMUD) fared much better (IIRC, only one price hike, which was relatively small, and no blackouts).
Also, some third world countries have started manufacturing patented drugs (unlicensed) for a tiny fraction of what it would cost to get the same drugs from the patent holder. I believe Brazil was the first to do so, and they have set up a program to help other impoverished nations do the same.
When Capitalist greed costs human lives, that is wrong. If the Capitalists can't act responsibly then they shouldn't be allowed in necessity markets.
That's irrelevant. He is still being denied property, and he is still being prevented from contesting that decision, and UPS and US Customs are still violating the law by withholding the information he needs. From the US Customs website:
All seizures, forfeitures, mitigation, and property dispositions are strictly governed by laws designed to afford the greatest possible due process.
The importer is provided with a "Notice of Seizure," listing the items seized, the law(s) violated, the violator's options (rights and time to petition, elect judicial or administrative processing, etc.) and the Customs contact location and telephone number.
Note also that the cable itself is not even illegal. It is merely sold by a company that at one time sold, but no longer sells, a product which was deemed illegal under the DMCA.
The 5th Amendment contains the phrase "nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law".
The 14th amendment contains almost the same statement, except that it applies specifically to the States. US Customs, however, is a Federal agency, and thus it is the 5th Amendment that applies.
He is most definately being denied property (the cables), and by UPS withholding from him the information he needs to appeal that judgement, he is being denied due process. How is that so difficult to understand? There are a lot of ways for the government to violate your rights besides throwing you in jail.
And let's not forget the fact that the site also contained:
a) Threats of terrorist actions
b) Threats against the President of the United States
Oh yeah, and he's also admitted to defacing websites and trying to break into DoD computers.
And he had a Molotov Cocktail (legally considered an Unregistered Firearm) in his posession when he was arrested.
The whole Free Speech thing is, in this case, BS. It's just the media and/or his lawyers trying to generate hype around the case, when in fact the kid has broken plenty of other laws that have either already withstood the 1st Amendment test, or to which that test is completely inapplicable.
Of course, people see the words Free Speech and they see red before they even find out what the whole thing is about, which is exactly why he, his lawyers, and the media are trying to make it a Free Speech issue.
Re:is this a repeat? anyone remember?
on
Tandys Never Die
·
· Score: 2
A fairly similar article gets published about once a year. This is a different article in a different publication, so it's not technically a repeat, but it is definately in the spirit of redundancy.
Still, though, it's oddly reassuring to know that these things are still out there doing stuff.
It's the same thing with voting. A lot of people don't vote because "one vote doesn't matter" and "it's all controlled by money". My answer to that is "what if everyone who felt that way voted?".
We've become a nation of whiners, always complaining about how the government's corrupt and The Man is keeping us down. The mechanisms exist for any US citizen to achieve just about anything they are willing to work for. All it takes is time and effort to learn the system.
Slashdot Mirror
First of all, I think that it's highly unlikely that Blizzard will learn anything from other games that are out there. Their history simply doesn't support that conclusion. There are plenty of third-person perspective RPGs in the world, many of which have features that would make Diablo II an absolute joy to play. How about being able to bind more skills/spells to hotkeys? How about being able to zoom in and out? How about being able to rotate your view so you can actually see behind the fscking walls? Every one of these is a feature of Diablo style games that came out a year or more before Diablo II, and yet Blizzard learned nothing from them. Instead they put out the exact same game as Diablo I with slightly upgraded graphics and a slightly different storyline, just as they have with Warcraft/Starcraft.
As you point out, Halflife has been out for years, and yet Blizzard has obviously learned nothing from it's mind-boggling success and longevity.
I have to admit, though, that I've had a low opinion of Blizzard ever since their (totally ineffective) copy protection prevented me from being able to run my (completely legal) copy of D2 from my DVD drive, thus forcing me to deal with the painfully long load times from my aged 4x8x CD-R (that's right, no RW. It's that old). Their response? Basically "Uh, sorry". When the LoD expansion came out, I discovered it had the same problem.
I don't mind copy protection as long as it doesn't interfere with the use of a legally purchased product. I don't even mind having to put the CD in the drive even though I generally do a full install. But when the product won't work on my hardware for no apparent reason other than flawed copy protection? That's irritating.
Sorry about the rant. I'll move on now.
My second point is that the bnetd people haven't done anything illegal, unless Blizzard is claiming ownership of packets moving through my network. Reverse engineering of protocols is still legal. If Blizzard had let the bnetd guys look at their server source code, or if the bnetd guys had somehow obtained a copy and perhaps decompiled it, then I would see Blizzards point. That isn't the case though. All the bnetd guys did was inspect packets travelling through their own networks to reverse engineer the protocols, and then create a work-alike server. All of this is completely legal, and, since none of Blizzards actual code is used, in no way infringes Blizzards copyrights.
At best Blizzard could have claims under Trade Secret laws or perhaps Patent law if they patented their protocols. Under Copyright I frankly don't see how they have a leg to stand on, and therefore I must conclude that Blizzard is depending on the fact that the bnetd developers won't have enough money to defend themselves. In otherwords, they are using bully tactics to supress something that is perfectly legal.
I thought the whole thing was pretty funny, although I'm surprised that the Mac Bible wasn't mentioned in any of the Addendums. Or even the Mac Bible, for that matter. Obviously anything that promises to "revolutionize the way you study the Scriptures" must be corrupt!
My personal favorite quote:
Hypnotically encased iMacs trick unsuspecting computer users into accepting Darwinism
I almost fell out of my chair when I read that!
The part about Pagans being notoriously bad spellers was pretty funny, too.
No, that was how Intel did it with the first Celerons. The Durons are actually a different chip made in a seperate process from the Athlons. The Duron "crippling" is by design in order to save on die size.
Replacing HDDs in terms of speed/performance/reliability is easy, and there are any number of currently available technologies that fit the bill. The reason HDDs still exist is because nothing else even comes close to in terms of price/capacity.
The one downside That I've noticed is that when KDE locks up I lose keyboard functionality, which forces me to hit the reset button instead of just killing X. Generally it's not that big of a deal, since (a) I'm rarely do anything with my computer that's actually important, and (b) I use reiserfs, but it does take some time to reboot and that's kind of annoying.
I suspect I could probably fix it by compiling a kernel with USB not a module, but I seem to be bad at compiling kernels. I've only ever compiled one that worked, and it had support for basically nothing.
Yes, I know it's not that hard. I don't know what's wrong with me...
For the same reasons I don't install X-Windows on my Linux servers: It's totally unnecessary in that application. All it would do is use up resources that are better used for, say, the purpose the server is intended to perform.
For people who don't intend to use their machines to play media files or browse the web, WMP and IE fall into that same catagory. MS isn't going far enough, IMHO. I'll be impressed when they let me run their product with no GUI installed (which, BTW, is why your sig is completely stupid).
A company can be only an hour or 2 out of the "premier" tech areas in CA and spend 1/4 of the amount on rent. Why a startup would even think about office space in San Jose or San Diego is totally beyond my comprehension.
There is no way the paperless office will become a reality until those of us who have grown up with computers (i.e. under 30*) are the dominant force in business. The simple fact is that the vast majority people older than that aren't comfortable enough with computers to give up their precious paper.
My first tech job was a serious wakeup call for me in this respect. I was the youngest tech on the floor, and one of the 10 (out of maybe 40 techs) who didn't print out my email to read it. These were people who lived and breathed tech! My night shift counterpart and I (the only techs under 30) achieved a paperless bay and reaped the troubleshooting benefits of a searchable bay log. People were blown away by how much easier things were, but they couldn't seem to pry themselves away from the little used composition books that every other test bay used.
I could go on and on about my experiences there, but what it comes down to is that the age groups that are dominant in business today are firmly entrenched in paper, and the paperless office will never have a chance until they are replaced by people young enough to not understand the purpose of white-out.
*That's the cutoff point according to my experience. If you are over 30 and comfortable functioning without paper, I applaud you. Please don't be offended.
But there is something wrong with becoming dependent on machines to do simple tasks like making change, which is all to often the case. That's why your father is right and you are wrong.
Now, using a calculator in engineering school is fine. If you've made it to engineering school you know the math already and you're just learning applications. You don't have time to mess around with log tables. Hell, I failed a statics test because my calculator died and I simply didn't have time to work out the problems without it. Talk about a crappy way to fail a test!
On the other hand, the fact that my 12 year old brother is allowed (encouraged, even) to use a calculator in class makes me sick. He's supposed to be learning math, but instead he's just learning to punch a sequence of buttons that will hopefully give him the correct answer (assuming, of course, that he's using the same brand of calculator that he was taught in school). There is absolutely no reason that kids learning how to reduce fractions should be allowed to use calculators. He's fortunate that our dad is as much of a hardass as yours probably is and doesn't let him use one on his homework. (My brother disagrees on this point of course, but he'll also be a step ahead of his classmates who aren't so lucky.)
Remember the term Garbage In, Garbage Out? How do you know you're getting garbage if you don't know the math well enough to know what to expect? Why would you even think to question the results when you've been taught to trust the calculator since the 3rd grade? Is that really how we want to teach our future engineers?
Or even better, perhaps he could tell us how this was enhanced by being all flash. (Yes, I know they claim it's a spoof, but that's entirely irrelevant here.)
Yup, that's what I call "Accessibility".
Seriously, if they can't make it acessible for a normal, able-bodied person like myself, why should I believe they'll do a better job for the disabled? Don't get me wrong, flash has it's place, but that place is definately NOT as a replacement for HTML.
There is one inaccuracy in your statement, though. There is no secret MiniTrue backdoor in Red Flag, it's wide open to the whole world.
You're right, in China all OSs are free as in beer. It's the Free as in Speech part that lets them ensure they aren't being spied on.
The only thing non-obvious about this case is whether reading someone elses email is illegal like tapping a phone without a warrant or illegal like opening someone else's snail mail.
Substitute Free Market for Capitalism and I will agree with you. They are not the same thing.
Capitalism is about amassing Capital, and it is driven by the producer. "Providing the best goods and services at the lowest cost" is one potential means to that end, though it is very rarely employed by a Capitalist entity. Quality raises costs, after all, and raised costs lower profits. Lower profits mean less Capital amassed, which is contrary to the basis of Capitalism.
The Free Market, however, is driven by the Consumer, who obviously wants to get the most for his money. This introduces motives which are directly opposed to Capitalism, like Yin and Yang.
In many ways they are two sides of the same coin, and I don't advocate the overthrow of Capitalism. My purpose is mostly educational.
Why? Because the demand is inelastic. When demand for something is inelastic, competition between companies goes up quickly because newcomers know that the demand for the good or service they are about to provide will not disappear suddenly. This increase in competition has the effect of reducing the price.
In a situation where the good or service is a Need, it may be true that competition is increased because of the reasons you list. However, it is NOT true that this competition will decrease price. That assumption is based on basic supply and demand, which is essentially inapplicable in the case of a basic Need. As you point out, the demand will not disappear, and in all likelyness it will not even be significantly reduced. Therefore, there is no economic reason for a price reduction unless one party is not satisfied with their marketshare. In this situation, however, it is far more common for the "competitors" to work out a pricefixing deal. They know that the consumer will pay what they charge because the consumer can't live without whatever they are selling. Since the demand curve is horizontal, the price curve can be placed wherever the supplier wants and they will still make money. This is known as "pricegouging".
Hey, I notice an interesting parallel that lots of people are
simultaneously pissed off about how much all of these following things
cost: prescription drugs, electricity (in California), and gas
(everywhere). In all cases those people think it's morally wrong for
the suppliers of these things to make a profit because we "need" those
things so much. But... isn't that the whole point of a market economy,
that you make money selling stuff people actually need?
Your friend Bill has apparently mistaken the market economy for a system based on morality. Yes, it is good when people can make money selling stuff people need, but when prices are driven so high that people can't afford their basic needs there is a problem. When that situation is caused by the producers desire to make more money (as is the case with prescription drugs and electricity in CA), rather than an actual increased cost to provide the good or service, it is called greed. When people die because of someone elses greed, it is morally wrong.
I would like to point out to you and Bill that it was only customers of private utility companies that truely suffered in CA, whereas customers of publicly owned utilities (like SMUD) fared much better (IIRC, only one price hike, which was relatively small, and no blackouts).
Also, some third world countries have started manufacturing patented drugs (unlicensed) for a tiny fraction of what it would cost to get the same drugs from the patent holder. I believe Brazil was the first to do so, and they have set up a program to help other impoverished nations do the same.
When Capitalist greed costs human lives, that is wrong. If the Capitalists can't act responsibly then they shouldn't be allowed in necessity markets.
All seizures, forfeitures, mitigation, and property dispositions are strictly governed by laws designed to afford the greatest possible due process.
The importer is provided with a "Notice of Seizure," listing the items seized, the law(s) violated, the violator's options (rights and time to petition, elect judicial or administrative processing, etc.) and the Customs contact location and telephone number.
Note also that the cable itself is not even illegal. It is merely sold by a company that at one time sold, but no longer sells, a product which was deemed illegal under the DMCA.
The 5th Amendment contains the phrase "nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law".
The 14th amendment contains almost the same statement, except that it applies specifically to the States. US Customs, however, is a Federal agency, and thus it is the 5th Amendment that applies.
He is most definately being denied property (the cables), and by UPS withholding from him the information he needs to appeal that judgement, he is being denied due process. How is that so difficult to understand? There are a lot of ways for the government to violate your rights besides throwing you in jail.
a) Threats of terrorist actions
b) Threats against the President of the United States
Oh yeah, and he's also admitted to defacing websites and trying to break into DoD computers.
And he had a Molotov Cocktail (legally considered an Unregistered Firearm) in his posession when he was arrested.
The whole Free Speech thing is, in this case, BS. It's just the media and/or his lawyers trying to generate hype around the case, when in fact the kid has broken plenty of other laws that have either already withstood the 1st Amendment test, or to which that test is completely inapplicable.
Of course, people see the words Free Speech and they see red before they even find out what the whole thing is about, which is exactly why he, his lawyers, and the media are trying to make it a Free Speech issue.
Still, though, it's oddly reassuring to know that these things are still out there doing stuff.
It's the same thing with voting. A lot of people don't vote because "one vote doesn't matter" and "it's all controlled by money". My answer to that is "what if everyone who felt that way voted?".
We've become a nation of whiners, always complaining about how the government's corrupt and The Man is keeping us down. The mechanisms exist for any US citizen to achieve just about anything they are willing to work for. All it takes is time and effort to learn the system.