How long has the bttv driver been in beta ? have you ever tried to get ATI All-In-Wonder card to show TV ? Have you ever tried to get any of the recent Turtle Beach sound cards to work ? How long have we had to wait for USB support, now that we have it, how long will we have to wait for it to support anything beyond keyboards and mice ? How far away is Firewire support ? How long did we have to wait for 3D support for cards other than Voodoo, now that we have some, when will these drives be out of beta (when will they stop sucking).
I personally love Linux and wouldn't use anything else, however, if you think Linux is "Ready for the Desktop" or "As easy as Windows", you are fooling yourself.
<p>
The discussion was about Microsoft using Linux code. I think he makes some good points about Linux.
</p>
<i>
<b>I'm Tired</b>
<p>
This is a little off topic, but I have to say it, because it shows that I agree, we should cut Microsoft some slack, because for the forseeable future, they are who will be providing our Operating Systems and Office Suites and if lifting a few lines of code from Open Source projects gives us a better Operating System, then so be it. Besides Linux has improved because of Windows, Samba and Wine being good examples, so why can't Windows improve because of Linux.
</p>
<p>
I just finished my vacation and the most important thing I did was pull Linux off my Desktop and Portable system. I first installed Linux way back when kernel.99 and everyone was holding their breath waiting for 1.0. At the time my primary Operating System was OS/2, but I went back and forth, dual booting most of the time. When Windows 95 came out, I hung onto OS/2 for quite a while, but eventually I gave in and switched. I continued using Linux off and on until early 1997 when I made a complete jump to Linux and I was very happy with it. Along the way I wrote a couple of articles for the Linux Gazette and picked up a few certifications. As you can see, I was no Guru, but I was a Linux Power User. So what changed?
</p>
<p>
What changed was I got tired, I got tired of recompiling my kernel and jumping through hoops to get my hardware working. I got tired if beta software, half-finished utilities and device drivers written on alien space crafts. I don't want to check the "Hardware Compatibility List" before I buy new hardware, I want my new hardware to ship with the drives and software I need to use it. I don't want to wait around for six months or a year for someone to get around to writing drivers and or software for new hardware. I want to use USB and Firewire and I 'am tired of support for such things being "Right around the corner" or "In the next kernel release". I want a Web Browser that does everything, Java, ActiveX, VB Script, ShockWave and I want it to be reasonably fast and stable. I want to be able to install a new software package and know before hand that I have everything necessary to install it and I will not have to go out and search for an obscure C library. I want something as easy as burning a CD, or ripping MP3's, to in fact be easy. I want to watch DvD and Quicktime movies. I short I 'am tired.
</p>
<p>
All is not lost, I still use Linux for my server and router, but for my day to day desktop needs I have moved to Windows ME and will probably use it for the foreseeable future. I 'am aware that I have sacrificed stability and versatility for usability, but I have entered the world of "Point, Click and Drool" with my eyes and my mind wide openn.
</p>
</i>
For an example of a successful, popular administration with a real mandate, see the Reagan years which truly set the stage for the current robust economy that Clinton/Gore have taken credit for.
You mean the same Reagan Administration which brought us The Iran/Contra scandal. Maybe you mean the Reagan Administration which lowered taxes for the richest 1% of the population, then instead of shrinking government and lowering spending, gave us the first trillion dollar Deficit. How about the Reagan Administration that lowered the poverty rate, not by creating jobs and increasing wages, but by changing the definition of what poverty is. No ? how about the Reagan Administration which set the stage for junk bonds, which eventully lead to the Savings and Loan bailout an cost the Taxpayers billions of dollars. Or is all of this stuff Clinton and Gores fault too ?
Before you flame me, please understand, I am not supporting Clinton or Gore, nor am I justifing anything they did. I am simply pointing out the fact that the Reagan years were not the "Golden Years". The Reagan Administration was guilty of a few crimes and had its fair share of questionable policies.
What about the innocent people who are wrongly convicted ? Do they deserve to die ? Think about it, how hard do you suppose it is to be in the wrong place at the wrong time ? I am against the Death Penalty, not to protect the guilty, because god knows there are people in the world who just need to die. I am against the Death Penalty to protect the Innocent. In my book if the state of Texas or any state for that matter, put even one innocent person to death, that is way too many. Don't give me any "In order to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs.", because thats crap. I don't know anyone who would want to be innocent and face the Death Penalty, and for all of you who are for the Death Penalty, if you are ever convicted and sentanced to die, I expect you to push the needle into your own arm, pull the lever or put the gun to your own head, whether you are guilty or not, because you supported the Death Penalty and damn it, its the right thing and you must have done something wrong to deserve it.
You do NOT want people to be able to install any old RPM on their desktop in a networked environment. That's a BIG "no-no".
Linux doesn't have this problem to begin with, if you are setting up a desktop system for someone and you don't want them to install software, you simply do not give them the root password. They can still download, install and run software, but only in thier home directory and only with thier own user permissions. Which means; no formating the hard drive, deleting or altering system files and few if any virus.
Also, I belive that anyone with dual citizenship
should not be allowed to vote due to conflicting loyalties.
What about children born to American Military personal while they are overseas. They often have dual citizenship, would they have conflicting loyalties ?
If Nader did in fact cost Gore the election, this is a very good thing. It means in 2004 the Democrates will have to goto Nader and beg him not to run. This of course will be Naders chance to get some of his own platform in to the Democrates platform, or possibly a shot at the Vice President job.
before you vote. Which of these Would-Be-Presidents, is going to give me Freedom instead of taking it away ?. Our rights and freedoms have been decimated over the last 50 years, the DMCA, the War on Drugs and many other government sponsored actions have resulted in the American people being less free then most European countries, this was not the case in 1950. Maybe the question we should have asked Gore and Bush was "What Freedom are you, if elected, are you going to give me ?"
Thats all fine and good except under the DMCA it is illegal to code DeCSS at all. At no time did they say it was illegal to make a backup copy for personal use. It is legal to copy your DvD to a video tape. What they say is, it is illegal to make a device, either software or hardaware, which circumvents accesss control. This is the core of the problem, they only want you to be able to play the DvD on a device from which they got money for, whether it a licence fee for DvD or the pirate tax on video tapes.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there provisions in the DMCA that allows educational institutions to do such things for the purposes of research ? If there is such a provision, how difficult would it be to setup a non profit organization whose purpose is to "Research Access Control Devices". For a $2 application fee, the organization would give a $1 grant for your "Research" and use the rest for postage, website maintance, legal fees and such. All laws have loop holes, we just have to find one in the DMCA.
I personally think it should be a law that everyone between the ages of 18 and dead (and you must be able to prove you are dead) should have to vote under penalty of say a $25 fine. Make it a national holiday, make voting by mail easier and/or allow voting on the net which could be done easily with some sort of public key/private key signature system.
For those of you who are humor impaired, this is not entirely serious and besides the major parties would never pass such a law, because that would force the unwashed masses to vote and god only knows what would happen then, why they may vote for someone who has radical ideas like a flat tax or reducing governement spending. Or they may vote for someone who has a real grasp of the issues and fresh ideas.
Dell feels LinuxCare is good enough to supply Tech Support for their Linux Preinstalled systems and if they are good enough for Dell, I suspect they are good enough for your company.
Another better player can be found here. It doesn't have a nice pretty interface like the other one, but it has a lower hardware requirement and plays movies smoothers.
The main link for DivX is
here. There is a Linux player available, but a better one can be found here. The first one plays very badly on my Duron 600, while the second one has much lower hardware requirements and works very nicely. Both players work the same way, they use the DLL loader from the Wine Project to load the Codec, and they both require you to have the Windows binaries.
I just read it and you know what strikes me first ? How short and to the point it is. I guess it has not hit Committee yet where it will be rewritten into a 114 page document that only a Lawyer could understand and the only significant paragraph will be the one that makes Lung Cancer a "Value Added Service" by the Tabbacco Industry and therefore taxable.
Unfortunatly for me a cerification is very neccessary. I have been using Linux for a very long time and have helped a couple of charitable organizations setup Linux based networks as well as my own somewhat complex home network. I am also a Computer Technician in the Windows World, with several years of front line support experiance. My employer is starting to use Linux internally and has posted various jobs for which I have applied. The problem I run into is my resume goes to HR first who reviews it for appropriate skill sets and trainability, and then I get an email which states I have no formal education in this field nor a certification to prove real world skills and my resume will not be forwarded to the hiring manager and they ended up hiring some schmuck with an MCSE and on his first day of work I have to go down and show him how to start X.
So what to do ? I have dropped a $1500 on formal training, to learn things I already know, $200 more for an LPI Level I certification, which I passed very easily and I have even went so far as to take the BrainBench certifications. Next time I get an email like that, I walk.
"And if Kaplan's decision stands, the First Amendment is dead."
It all makes sense now, this whole thing was not about DvD's at all. The Government wanted a loophole so it could start censoring the web, and now they have it. They couldn't pass laws to do it, these were struck down as unconstitutional, but now they have case law to do the work for them. From now on all anyone needs is a "Compelling Reason" to have a specific piece of information censored, they can pull this rabbit out of the hat and PRESTO the web is in the United States is as exciting as a rerun of "Leave it to Beaver".
I like the idea of electronic publishing. I own a Rocket E-book and I find it to be an good replacement for paper published books. It is about the size of a papaerback, it uses rechargable batteries, which last for days and gives it a nice ergonomic feel. The biggest problem is there isn't alot of new content for it yet. There is some free stuff, but most of it costs money and costs just as much as the paper published version. I have also found much of the Self-Published stuff to be very badly written. The up side here is Rocket has provided tools for converting almost anything to their format, so I can download WebPages, Project Guttenberg files and such. Even better some hackers are starting to make the tools neccessary to use it with Linux, so soon I will not have to use my Wifes machine the get content onto it.
This country (the USA) was founded on Civil Disobedience, there is a great tradition of it all through our history. Without Civil Disobedience, we would not be an independent country, we'd still be England's Tax Bitch. The Unions would have never gotten off the ground and we'd all be working in factories 12 hours a day, for 50 cents an hour. We would still be "Seperate, but Equal". The Constitution, even gives us the right to Peaceful Assembly.
Unfortunatly most of us, myself included, are not willing (gutless) to risk inprisionment for what we beleive in. So the question then becomes how do you do a "Peacful Assembly" in cyberspace ? How do you publicly show your discontentment with the system ? Most importantly how do you organize the effort without leaving a few head people or organization vulnerable to persecution (or is that prosecution) ? The answer can be found in our own geek history. A few years ago a couple of sleazy Lawyers Spammed the internet, almost without thought the geek community flammed them with so much email it shut down thier ISP, which garnered much media attention. Why not repeat this on a larger scale. The MPAA and its member companies all have email addresses, while we are at it, CC: all the Senators and Congressman as well, not just yours, but everyone does all of them. Email them proclaiming your rights to Free Speech and Fair Use, and to rub salt in the wound add a list of websites which carry DeCSS to your.sig file. Signup for 2 or 3 free email accounts and send the emails from each one, that way fewer people are needed. If such an action could be planned and executed by even a few thousand people, I think someone would take notice, but a hundred thousand would make a serious wave.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
Re:Who really needs a lesson
on
Lawsuits Suck
·
· Score: 1
Oh that would be lovely, what we would get is 3 day "BootCamps" that would train people to pass the Bar Exam. We have seen how well this works with MSCE's. No I'd rather keep it the way it is now. Although I'd like to make it a requirement that once they've passed the Bar, they have to spend a year as a public defender before they can go into private practice. Doctors have to do an Internship, why not Lawyers too.
As far back as the early 90's OS/2 Warp could do this. You could either boot the client OS off a floppy or make a disk image, which was much faster since it was booting off the hard drive. OS/2 then treated it like any other application. Worked pretty well for DOS, CPM and Minix.
Okay, they do disagree on major issues such as where to spend my money. The Republicans want to take my money and give it to the rich and the Democrates want to take my money and give it to the poor. The Republicans want to take my money and feed the bloated military budget, the Democrates want to take my money and feed the bloated social reform budget. The Republicans want to take away my freedom to choose Atheism, the Democrates want to take away my freedom not choose Atheism. The Republicans want to lower taxes and raise the deficeit, the Democrates want to riase taxes and lower the deficeit. The list goes on and on like this, the two parties agree that I should pay taxes, they just can't agree on how to spend it. The agree they should be limiting my freedom, they just can't agree on which freedoms I'm not responsible enough to have. At the end of the day it doesn't matter which party is in power, because I still am not represented, I still get 30% of my income taken away from me, nothing changes and every day I have a few less freedoms than I had the day before. They look an awful lot alike to me.
The point he is trying to make is neither party represents him at all, nor do they represent me in any way shape or form. I'm not represented, not because I don't vote, I'm not represented because "NONE", let me repeat that "NONE" of the candidates even come close agreeing with me on any issue that is important to me. Lets face it, Republicans and the Democrates are virtually the same party, they only disagree on a very narrow list of issues.
So what is the solution? I could vote for a 3rd party or I could vote for myself as a write in, but isn't that just throwing my vote away? Is this better than not voting at all? Is effect is the same ?
I read recently in 2600 magazine, an article about how to deal with spammers. According to the article the best way to deal with spammers is to waste the only resource of thiers we can, time. What we do is when one of these spams pops up, we goto the website and email the webmaster or thier service provider, complaining that the file they advertised was not available on thier website. Demand they make the file available. If you are really mean, suggest you will file a complaint with thier local Better Business Bureau or Chamber of Commerce. Better yet, do searches on copyrighted MP3's and then turn them in for illegally distributing copyrighted material, this has a special irony to it, turning the two great evils of the Internet against each other.
I can answer this one easily. Illegal drugs and the dealers are bad, and have no legal standing, because someone who is not licenced to do so, should not be handing out drugs and it is therfore illegal to do so. Please do not bring up how legalizing drugs will fix these problems, this is not the issue. Guns and gun manufacturers on the other hand, have legal standing, even though the sole purpose of a gun is to kill, there are legal uses for a gun, such as target shooting and hunting.
With this in mind, it is already illegal to right programs whose only function is to destroy or hamper computers, there are several laws making it illegal to write and spread virus programs. However Napster and DCSS, can be used for illegal purposes, but also have perfectly legal uses as well, such as filesharing none copyrighted material and making copies of DvD under the Fair use laws. Therefore the programers should be offered the same protection as the gun manufactures.
Slashdot Mirror
I think you missed the point the original writer ( an anonymous poster on Nerdperect) was trying to make.
How long has the bttv driver been in beta ? have you ever tried to get ATI All-In-Wonder card to show TV ? Have you ever tried to get any of the recent Turtle Beach sound cards to work ? How long have we had to wait for USB support, now that we have it, how long will we have to wait for it to support anything beyond keyboards and mice ? How far away is Firewire support ? How long did we have to wait for 3D support for cards other than Voodoo, now that we have some, when will these drives be out of beta (when will they stop sucking).
I personally love Linux and wouldn't use anything else, however, if you think Linux is "Ready for the Desktop" or "As easy as Windows", you are fooling yourself.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
The discussion was about Microsoft using Linux code. I think he makes some good points about Linux.
</p>
<i>
<b>I'm Tired</b>
<p>
This is a little off topic, but I have to say it, because it shows that I agree, we should cut Microsoft some slack, because for the forseeable future, they are who will be providing our Operating Systems and Office Suites and if lifting a few lines of code from Open Source projects gives us a better Operating System, then so be it. Besides Linux has improved because of Windows, Samba and Wine being good examples, so why can't Windows improve because of Linux.
</p>
<p>
I just finished my vacation and the most important thing I did was pull Linux off my Desktop and Portable system. I first installed Linux way back when kernel
</p>
<p>
What changed was I got tired, I got tired of recompiling my kernel and jumping through hoops to get my hardware working. I got tired if beta software, half-finished utilities and device drivers written on alien space crafts. I don't want to check the "Hardware Compatibility List" before I buy new hardware, I want my new hardware to ship with the drives and software I need to use it. I don't want to wait around for six months or a year for someone to get around to writing drivers and or software for new hardware. I want to use USB and Firewire and I 'am tired of support for such things being "Right around the corner" or "In the next kernel release". I want a Web Browser that does everything, Java, ActiveX, VB Script, ShockWave and I want it to be reasonably fast and stable. I want to be able to install a new software package and know before hand that I have everything necessary to install it and I will not have to go out and search for an obscure C library. I want something as easy as burning a CD, or ripping MP3's, to in fact be easy. I want to watch DvD and Quicktime movies. I short I 'am tired.
</p>
<p>
All is not lost, I still use Linux for my server and router, but for my day to day desktop needs I have moved to Windows ME and will probably use it for the foreseeable future. I 'am aware that I have sacrificed stability and versatility for usability, but I have entered the world of "Point, Click and Drool" with my eyes and my mind wide openn.
</p>
</i>
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
You mean the same Reagan Administration which brought us The Iran/Contra scandal. Maybe you mean the Reagan Administration which lowered taxes for the richest 1% of the population, then instead of shrinking government and lowering spending, gave us the first trillion dollar Deficit. How about the Reagan Administration that lowered the poverty rate, not by creating jobs and increasing wages, but by changing the definition of what poverty is. No ? how about the Reagan Administration which set the stage for junk bonds, which eventully lead to the Savings and Loan bailout an cost the Taxpayers billions of dollars. Or is all of this stuff Clinton and Gores fault too ?
Before you flame me, please understand, I am not supporting Clinton or Gore, nor am I justifing anything they did. I am simply pointing out the fact that the Reagan years were not the "Golden Years". The Reagan Administration was guilty of a few crimes and had its fair share of questionable policies.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
What about the innocent people who are wrongly convicted ? Do they deserve to die ? Think about it, how hard do you suppose it is to be in the wrong place at the wrong time ? I am against the Death Penalty, not to protect the guilty, because god knows there are people in the world who just need to die. I am against the Death Penalty to protect the Innocent. In my book if the state of Texas or any state for that matter, put even one innocent person to death, that is way too many. Don't give me any "In order to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs.", because thats crap. I don't know anyone who would want to be innocent and face the Death Penalty, and for all of you who are for the Death Penalty, if you are ever convicted and sentanced to die, I expect you to push the needle into your own arm, pull the lever or put the gun to your own head, whether you are guilty or not, because you supported the Death Penalty and damn it, its the right thing and you must have done something wrong to deserve it.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
Linux doesn't have this problem to begin with, if you are setting up a desktop system for someone and you don't want them to install software, you simply do not give them the root password. They can still download, install and run software, but only in thier home directory and only with thier own user permissions. Which means; no formating the hard drive, deleting or altering system files and few if any virus.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
What about children born to American Military personal while they are overseas. They often have dual citizenship, would they have conflicting loyalties ?
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
For those of you who are humor impaired, this is not entirely serious and besides the major parties would never pass such a law, because that would force the unwashed masses to vote and god only knows what would happen then, why they may vote for someone who has radical ideas like a flat tax or reducing governement spending. Or they may vote for someone who has a real grasp of the issues and fresh ideas.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
Dell feels LinuxCare is good enough to supply Tech Support for their Linux Preinstalled systems and if they are good enough for Dell, I suspect they are good enough for your company.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
The main link for DivX is here. There is a Linux player available, but a better one can be found here. The first one plays very badly on my Duron 600, while the second one has much lower hardware requirements and works very nicely. Both players work the same way, they use the DLL loader from the Wine Project to load the Codec, and they both require you to have the Windows binaries.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
I just read it and you know what strikes me first ? How short and to the point it is. I guess it has not hit Committee yet where it will be rewritten into a 114 page document that only a Lawyer could understand and the only significant paragraph will be the one that makes Lung Cancer a "Value Added Service" by the Tabbacco Industry and therefore taxable.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
Unfortunatly for me a cerification is very neccessary. I have been using Linux for a very long time and have helped a couple of charitable organizations setup Linux based networks as well as my own somewhat complex home network. I am also a Computer Technician in the Windows World, with several years of front line support experiance. My employer is starting to use Linux internally and has posted various jobs for which I have applied. The problem I run into is my resume goes to HR first who reviews it for appropriate skill sets and trainability, and then I get an email which states I have no formal education in this field nor a certification to prove real world skills and my resume will not be forwarded to the hiring manager and they ended up hiring some schmuck with an MCSE and on his first day of work I have to go down and show him how to start X.
So what to do ? I have dropped a $1500 on formal training, to learn things I already know, $200 more for an LPI Level I certification, which I passed very easily and I have even went so far as to take the BrainBench certifications. Next time I get an email like that, I walk.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
"And if Kaplan's decision stands, the First Amendment is dead."
It all makes sense now, this whole thing was not about DvD's at all. The Government wanted a loophole so it could start censoring the web, and now they have it. They couldn't pass laws to do it, these were struck down as unconstitutional, but now they have case law to do the work for them. From now on all anyone needs is a "Compelling Reason" to have a specific piece of information censored, they can pull this rabbit out of the hat and PRESTO the web is in the United States is as exciting as a rerun of "Leave it to Beaver".
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
This country (the USA) was founded on Civil Disobedience, there is a great tradition of it all through our history. Without Civil Disobedience, we would not be an independent country, we'd still be England's Tax Bitch. The Unions would have never gotten off the ground and we'd all be working in factories 12 hours a day, for 50 cents an hour. We would still be "Seperate, but Equal". The Constitution, even gives us the right to Peaceful Assembly.
Unfortunatly most of us, myself included, are not willing (gutless) to risk inprisionment for what we beleive in. So the question then becomes how do you do a "Peacful Assembly" in cyberspace ? How do you publicly show your discontentment with the system ? Most importantly how do you organize the effort without leaving a few head people or organization vulnerable to persecution (or is that prosecution) ? The answer can be found in our own geek history. A few years ago a couple of sleazy Lawyers Spammed the internet, almost without thought the geek community flammed them with so much email it shut down thier ISP, which garnered much media attention. Why not repeat this on a larger scale. The MPAA and its member companies all have email addresses, while we are at it, CC: all the Senators and Congressman as well, not just yours, but everyone does all of them. Email them proclaiming your rights to Free Speech and Fair Use, and to rub salt in the wound add a list of websites which carry DeCSS to your .sig file. Signup for 2 or 3 free email accounts and send the emails from each one, that way fewer people are needed. If such an action could be planned and executed by even a few thousand people, I think someone would take notice, but a hundred thousand would make a serious wave.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
Okay, they do disagree on major issues such as where to spend my money. The Republicans want to take my money and give it to the rich and the Democrates want to take my money and give it to the poor. The Republicans want to take my money and feed the bloated military budget, the Democrates want to take my money and feed the bloated social reform budget. The Republicans want to take away my freedom to choose Atheism, the Democrates want to take away my freedom not choose Atheism. The Republicans want to lower taxes and raise the deficeit, the Democrates want to riase taxes and lower the deficeit. The list goes on and on like this, the two parties agree that I should pay taxes, they just can't agree on how to spend it. The agree they should be limiting my freedom, they just can't agree on which freedoms I'm not responsible enough to have. At the end of the day it doesn't matter which party is in power, because I still am not represented, I still get 30% of my income taken away from me, nothing changes and every day I have a few less freedoms than I had the day before. They look an awful lot alike to me.
Numbersyx
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
The point he is trying to make is neither party represents him at all, nor do they represent me in any way shape or form. I'm not represented, not because I don't vote, I'm not represented because "NONE", let me repeat that "NONE" of the candidates even come close agreeing with me on any issue that is important to me. Lets face it, Republicans and the Democrates are virtually the same party, they only disagree on a very narrow list of issues.
So what is the solution? I could vote for a 3rd party or I could vote for myself as a write in, but isn't that just throwing my vote away? Is this better than not voting at all? Is effect is the same ?
Numbersyx
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
I read recently in 2600 magazine, an article about how to deal with spammers. According to the article the best way to deal with spammers is to waste the only resource of thiers we can, time. What we do is when one of these spams pops up, we goto the website and email the webmaster or thier service provider, complaining that the file they advertised was not available on thier website. Demand they make the file available. If you are really mean, suggest you will file a complaint with thier local Better Business Bureau or Chamber of Commerce. Better yet, do searches on copyrighted MP3's and then turn them in for illegally distributing copyrighted material, this has a special irony to it, turning the two great evils of the Internet against each other.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
I can answer this one easily. Illegal drugs and the dealers are bad, and have no legal standing, because someone who is not licenced to do so, should not be handing out drugs and it is therfore illegal to do so. Please do not bring up how legalizing drugs will fix these problems, this is not the issue. Guns and gun manufacturers on the other hand, have legal standing, even though the sole purpose of a gun is to kill, there are legal uses for a gun, such as target shooting and hunting.
With this in mind, it is already illegal to right programs whose only function is to destroy or hamper computers, there are several laws making it illegal to write and spread virus programs. However Napster and DCSS, can be used for illegal purposes, but also have perfectly legal uses as well, such as filesharing none copyrighted material and making copies of DvD under the Fair use laws. Therefore the programers should be offered the same protection as the gun manufactures.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.