It may be obvious, but it was not obvious to legislators....
Unless, of course, its more important to them to be seen to do something, rather than actually do something effective (like providing a budget for enforcement).
Most things that would be obvious don't seem particularly obvious to legislators.
Politician: "Gee, let's make a law making condition Y illegal because some people are committing (already existing) crime X with condition Y."
Constituent: "But X is already illegal, and condition Y is appropriate in a lot of situations not involving crime X!"
Politician: "Well, the world will be a better place!"
Constituent: "But condition Y for me prevents crime X from happening to me! And criminals don't care if Y is illegal."
Politician: "Tough. I know what's best for you."
Oh come off it. The NSA was doing it, they only got permission from a republican president. Obama even voted for the telecom immunity. The Republicans have problems, but lets not give them credit where they're not due.
What republicans? All I saw were liberals and socialists. I haven't seen conservatives for a long time.
However, I completely agree with you that this sort of thing is the doing of secretive bureaucracies such as "No Such Agency" and "Clandestine Intelligence Agency"
Very chilling. Do not take your freedom for granted. I'll share my personal story to show how quickly a thriving democracy can turn into an oppresive regime, here in the US.
Remember the times that led to the invsasion of Iraq? American flags on every highway overpass?
I just happened to be in the process of getting my green card, which means my future was at the mercy of a faceless US government bureaucrat. A rejection and I'd have to pack with my family (including two US born children) and find another place in the globe to settle.
I had published a couple of letters to the editors in the San Jose Mercury News, discussing politics. I was reading foreign media which were hinting that US intelligence on Iraq WMD was bogus. Guess what? I stood very quiet, very silent. Who knows who was listening and how far the goverment was willing to go to silence dissent. If it had been just me, I would have stood up and fought for my rights, but with my family in mind, I decided to cave.
Think about this for a second: the best place on earth, and still scared of what the government might do to me. Call me paranoid, but it felt like a very real threat. It's only in the last two years or so, with Obama rising, that the oppressive feeling has left.
Don't pray to Messiah Obama just yet. I somehow doubt he's going to fix things. He'll probably just make it more dangerous for us by furthering the goals of big brother and the nanny state.
Blaming presidents can only get you so far. Don't look just at the president when you see the US turning into the USSR.
Hey, I wouldn't be caught dead drinking Budweiser. It's basically water. Mass-produced lager is generally not very good, but a lot of Americans drink it because they don't know any better (yes, I'm as American as apple pie). Victory beer, anyone?
IIRC, people have been claiming the mouse will be dead in X amount of years for quite a few years now. And keyboards, too. And non-automatically-driven cars. And I think we're supposed to be living on the moon by now or something...
Predictions and speculation are cool, but humans do not appear to be very good at fulfilling them in general. Talk to an economist about that.
slightly over the top, but there's a lot of truth in that. The Linux community has a "good enough" attitude. CVS was good enough (thankfully, there are finally better solutions). X is good enough. Interopability with Windows is good enough. No. It's a crutch that lets MS call their shit cross platform when they should be eliminated. Say NO to mediocracy. Say NO to Microsoft compatability.
I don't know that it's entirely true. I use Samba on my Linux box. But that's because I'm temporarily using it headlessly via ethernet with X, SSH, and so on through my folk's Windows computer. I don't consider it a crutch at all. When I first changed off windows about a year ago, it was hard. Now I do a lot of my work on my linux box (and it's harder to do the stuff on windows now).
OS agnosticism is a good thing. It can be achieved in a couple of ways: open standards that everyone follows (probably the best way), and everyone implements everyone else's standards enough to make it work (not the most optimal, but it works).
and as the price of bio-diesel goes up, so does the cost of our coffee.
Eventually, none of us will be able to wake up at all.
Won't that just make our economy go down, since people will be less productive? And then, with the economy tanking, the price of diesel and coffee grounds will go down (because the market won't be able to sustain the higher prices).
A device to determine illegality of files on a computer? Funnily enough, I always thought it was up to the judge and jury to determine if someone is/was doing something illegal.
I don't know about you, but I don't think cops need more reasons to make arrests. It's bad enough those arrests become public record, searchable by all, including employers, regardless of whether there is an eventual conviction or not.
Well, that's true. Of course, one could apply the superposition principle, centripetal forces, gravity, and conservation of angular momentum (since we lost mass, we lost momentum, and therefore the rotation slows a bit) to figure in for these effects (significant in the case of a small mass difference ratio). Either way, even in the rotating bucket, the water still fills in the gouge.
Fuck, I thought I was the only one using slack anymore. Let's have a Slack-Con. I'll bring the paper plates, someone else can bring the chips, macaroni, keg, and beer bong.
IANAG, but the point I was trying to make is that any gouge that deep would disappear due to the effects of gravity, but might leave behind a region of thinner crust material like the Pacific ocean floor.
If everything were molten, it wouldn't leave any regions behind, because molten magma/lava would fill in the gouge fairly quickly. Kind of like scooping water out of a bucket doesn't leave a big score; the water level just goes down.
Ask him if mathematic formula are free, or if there was some crime behind them too...
I'm fairly sure that E=MC^2 should've been outlawed before they used that formula to bomb the hell out of 2 Japanese cities...
(I'm actually not sure whether this post should be sarcastic, cynical, anti-censorship, anti-law, or whatever. It becomes rather weird when you write something and you can't actually think of which category it should be in.. Ah well. Consider it cynical humour for the time being)
E=MC^2 isn't exactly responsible for nukes. Edward Teller and Robert Oppenheimer are probably far more responsible for nuclear weapons (and the maligned, but ultimately good, nuclear reactors). Einstein was influential, but he wasn't really a nuclear physicist.
Broadcom wireless chipsets are crap. And I am speaking out of real embedded system design experience here.
Agreed, but from a different perspective. Their support for users running Linux is atrocious. I absolutely hate purchasing a wireless PCI card from a major maker only to find they've changed chips between revisions, and the new chip doesn't have drivers. Of course, the makers are just as guilty, since they don't mark the packaging in any way.
Slashdot Mirror
It may be obvious, but it was not obvious to legislators....
Unless, of course, its more important to them to be seen to do something, rather than actually do something effective (like providing a budget for enforcement).
Most things that would be obvious don't seem particularly obvious to legislators.
Politician: "Gee, let's make a law making condition Y illegal because some people are committing (already existing) crime X with condition Y."
Constituent: "But X is already illegal, and condition Y is appropriate in a lot of situations not involving crime X!"
Politician: "Well, the world will be a better place!"
Constituent: "But condition Y for me prevents crime X from happening to me! And criminals don't care if Y is illegal."
Politician: "Tough. I know what's best for you."
As age increases, the probability of death approaches 1.
Didn't Carbon Nanotube been found to cause cancer?
Doesn't everything cause cancer these days?
Ufo2000 http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/
Oh come off it. The NSA was doing it, they only got permission from a republican president. Obama even voted for the telecom immunity. The Republicans have problems, but lets not give them credit where they're not due.
What republicans? All I saw were liberals and socialists. I haven't seen conservatives for a long time.
However, I completely agree with you that this sort of thing is the doing of secretive bureaucracies such as "No Such Agency" and "Clandestine Intelligence Agency"
Very chilling. Do not take your freedom for granted. I'll share my personal story to show how quickly a thriving democracy can turn into an oppresive regime, here in the US.
Remember the times that led to the invsasion of Iraq? American flags on every highway overpass?
I just happened to be in the process of getting my green card, which means my future was at the mercy of a faceless US government bureaucrat. A rejection and I'd have to pack with my family (including two US born children) and find another place in the globe to settle.
I had published a couple of letters to the editors in the San Jose Mercury News, discussing politics. I was reading foreign media which were hinting that US intelligence on Iraq WMD was bogus. Guess what? I stood very quiet, very silent. Who knows who was listening and how far the goverment was willing to go to silence dissent. If it had been just me, I would have stood up and fought for my rights, but with my family in mind, I decided to cave.
Think about this for a second: the best place on earth, and still scared of what the government might do to me. Call me paranoid, but it felt like a very real threat. It's only in the last two years or so, with Obama rising, that the oppressive feeling has left.
-- http://fairsoftware.net/
Don't pray to Messiah Obama just yet. I somehow doubt he's going to fix things. He'll probably just make it more dangerous for us by furthering the goals of big brother and the nanny state.
Blaming presidents can only get you so far. Don't look just at the president when you see the US turning into the USSR.
Hey, I wouldn't be caught dead drinking Budweiser. It's basically water. Mass-produced lager is generally not very good, but a lot of Americans drink it because they don't know any better (yes, I'm as American as apple pie). Victory beer, anyone?
I think the touchscreen paradigm will take off when someone actually figures out to use it with porn.
Anyone who thinks touchscreen computing will dominate soon better come up with a smudge-free coating.
I wonder how effective touchscreen computing would be for me with super-greasy hands after eating a pound of bacon. Yum!
IIRC, people have been claiming the mouse will be dead in X amount of years for quite a few years now. And keyboards, too. And non-automatically-driven cars. And I think we're supposed to be living on the moon by now or something...
Predictions and speculation are cool, but humans do not appear to be very good at fulfilling them in general. Talk to an economist about that.
Don't forget those flying cars.
slightly over the top, but there's a lot of truth in that. The Linux community has a "good enough" attitude. CVS was good enough (thankfully, there are finally better solutions). X is good enough. Interopability with Windows is good enough. No. It's a crutch that lets MS call their shit cross platform when they should be eliminated. Say NO to mediocracy. Say NO to Microsoft compatability.
I don't know that it's entirely true. I use Samba on my Linux box. But that's because I'm temporarily using it headlessly via ethernet with X, SSH, and so on through my folk's Windows computer. I don't consider it a crutch at all. When I first changed off windows about a year ago, it was hard. Now I do a lot of my work on my linux box (and it's harder to do the stuff on windows now).
OS agnosticism is a good thing. It can be achieved in a couple of ways: open standards that everyone follows (probably the best way), and everyone implements everyone else's standards enough to make it work (not the most optimal, but it works).
No you are not ;-)
Pay me. I have a patent on winky smileys.
and as the price of bio-diesel goes up, so does the cost of our coffee. Eventually, none of us will be able to wake up at all.
Won't that just make our economy go down, since people will be less productive? And then, with the economy tanking, the price of diesel and coffee grounds will go down (because the market won't be able to sustain the higher prices).
QED.
Given the quality of American beer, I'm surprised they drank half of it before throwing it away.
You'd be amazed at the swill that passes for beer in the US.
Is she related to Freeman Dyson, (inventor of the Dyson Sphere)
No. If you FTFA, you will note that she is actually the offspring of a woman and a demonic Dyson vacuum cleaner.
Am I the only one surprised just to hear that Google has taken something out of beta?
No, and you ain't in Kansas, neither.
Speakeasy provides me with naked DSL.
Do you think it will be possible for me to convince them to provide me with naked girls?
A device to determine illegality of files on a computer? Funnily enough, I always thought it was up to the judge and jury to determine if someone is/was doing something illegal.
I don't know about you, but I don't think cops need more reasons to make arrests. It's bad enough those arrests become public record, searchable by all, including employers, regardless of whether there is an eventual conviction or not.
My name is Luke Skywalker and I approve this message. ADMIRAL ACKBAR!
It's a trap!
Well, that's true. Of course, one could apply the superposition principle, centripetal forces, gravity, and conservation of angular momentum (since we lost mass, we lost momentum, and therefore the rotation slows a bit) to figure in for these effects (significant in the case of a small mass difference ratio). Either way, even in the rotating bucket, the water still fills in the gouge.
I'm sure both of you
Fuck, I thought I was the only one using slack anymore. Let's have a Slack-Con. I'll bring the paper plates, someone else can bring the chips, macaroni, keg, and beer bong.
IANAG, but the point I was trying to make is that any gouge that deep would disappear due to the effects of gravity, but might leave behind a region of thinner crust material like the Pacific ocean floor.
If everything were molten, it wouldn't leave any regions behind, because molten magma/lava would fill in the gouge fairly quickly. Kind of like scooping water out of a bucket doesn't leave a big score; the water level just goes down.
The article is slashdotted but it is possible that when this happened there was no solid surface yet to leave traces of this.
Wouldn't this leave traces of radioactive material? Or maybe that's the source of the trace radioactive material we see on Earth today.
I'm fairly sure that E=MC^2 should've been outlawed before they used that formula to bomb the hell out of 2 Japanese cities...
(I'm actually not sure whether this post should be sarcastic, cynical, anti-censorship, anti-law, or whatever. It becomes rather weird when you write something and you can't actually think of which category it should be in.. Ah well. Consider it cynical humour for the time being)
E=MC^2 isn't exactly responsible for nukes. Edward Teller and Robert Oppenheimer are probably far more responsible for nuclear weapons (and the maligned, but ultimately good, nuclear reactors). Einstein was influential, but he wasn't really a nuclear physicist.
Broadcom wireless chipsets are crap. And I am speaking out of real embedded system design experience here.
Agreed, but from a different perspective. Their support for users running Linux is atrocious. I absolutely hate purchasing a wireless PCI card from a major maker only to find they've changed chips between revisions, and the new chip doesn't have drivers. Of course, the makers are just as guilty, since they don't mark the packaging in any way.