The NSA contends that nationwide wiretaps are necessary. That doesn't make it so.
They may very well be "necessary", too bad for the NSA that they're not legal.
That's an immensely selfish position, given the long-term civillian damage landmines have caused.
Given a choice between the possibility of a civilian casualty and the eventiality of bullets being fired at me, the choice is simple. Regardless, I'm not going to war. The only wars that we're likely to enter during my useful lifetime as a soldier are going to be against countries that I have no personal beefs with; but that's an entirely different discussion.
I've been to towns in Cambodia where close to half of the inhabitants were missing limbs from old landmines. I'm given to understand that similar conditions exist in parts of Africa.
And every single injury is a tragedy. That still doesn't change the fact that in times of war, land mines allow the use of smaller infantry forces and result in lower casualties for the side deploying them.
The anthrax research is for a vaccine. In order to make a vaccine, you have to make some anthrax. To say the US 'stockpiles bioweapons' in an abuse of both words.
How many other diseases that can be treated with antibiotics are we developing vaccines for? While immunological work does go on, it's just as much a cover for hoarding anthrax spores. Do you believe, even for a minute, that if the US was in bad shape in a future war that we'd hesitate to use them? For the sake of argument; if we had a million Chinese troops about to invade the continental US, anthrax spores would be falling like snow.
Yes, they have utility, but giving them up does not mean that North Korea can just roll into Seoul. We can make up for their functionality in other ways.
I'm not in the military. The people who are say that they're necessary. I'm not going to be on the front lines anywhere and a minefield means that fewer of us have to be there.
In a similar vein, we don't stock biological weapons, and yet somehow dictatorships haven't taken over the globe yet.
Actually, we DO have stocks of biological and chemical weapons.
Sure, they're "defensive" but let's be honest. Anthrax is anthrax.
Of course, mines alone wouldn't have kept the North Koreans out. It's possible that without mines they would still not have overrun South Korea. That's not the point. The point is that sometimes bad things are necessary to prevent even worse things.
I'm sure that the vast majority of humanity would prefer that the world wasn't a place where bombs, guns and land mines are necessary. But getting rid of them will only empower despots to commit far greater evils. It's naive to think otherwise. It's a tragedy whenever someone is injured or killed by a no longer needed munition, but those munitions have helped to protect an even greater number of people from harm.
I'm not quite sure on the timeframe, but overall I agree with your point. With very few exceptions, there's no reason why a mine needs to be active and dangerous 20 years after it was placed.
Machine shops aren't necessarily the most healthy environments for people or computers.
The heat and the dust in the air can contributed to shortened lifespans for equipment. If that 10 year old HDD dies, why replace the whole machine when you can replace the bad HDD and use FreeDOS?
Which only happens to be 99% of the file formats that Joe Public is likely to run into.
Puh-leeeze!
Regular people are going to encounter MP3 more than anything else. End of story.
When a tech-savvy friend has some cool music and the n00b wants a copy, it's going to be MP3. When someone discovers the wonders of P2P leeching, they're going to get MP3s.
My step-father knows what an MP3 player is. This is a man who knows almost nothing about computers and related technology, but he knows MP3. If a linux distro comes with KDE & XMMS and will play MP3s, the vast majority of computer users would never notice the difference.
I jumped the Apple ship formally about 6 years ago. It had been informal since about a year before.
I just got tired of all of the excuse making. I could take my money and pick out all of the components that I want and build a PC for less than I'd spend on a comparable Mac. I could upgrade all of the parts that I wanted to on the PC that I built because ATX is what everyone uses, to upgrade my Mac I'd be limited in what I could choose short of replacing the entire machine.
I understand that Apple feels like they'd disappear if their customers had too much choice and that the cloners were murdering them. Power Computing was releasing faster machines at a lower price than Apple. Daystar had a lock on high end performance. Umax had the low end all sown up. Apple did what Apple had to do to survive, I get that. My choice was about what best met my computing and financial needs and not about what was best for Apple's bottom line.
Comment is not very insightful, as it merely says the same exact thing as I was saying; the change is in marketing names, not anything else.
No, I didn't repeat you. You are incorrect. Last fm is a standalone player. Audioscrobbler is a plugin for myriad players.
LK
Audioscrobbler != last.fm
on
Things To Download
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Audioscrobbler started off as a school project, but after a while, they went commercial, and are now last.fm.
Last fm is a standalone player that implements the Audioscrobbler functionality. Audioscrobbler is STILL available in plugin form for Winamp, iTunes and Windows Media Player.
Perhaps the submitter is a dolt but at least he read the fucking page.
(Last fm == Standalone player) && (Audioscrobbler == plugin)
IANAL, but I can read. Another criterium for libel is if a "reasonable person" would believe that the statement is true.
For example if someone said that Bill and Hillary Clinton or George and Laura Bush were siblings because they're from the same state and have the same last name and thus their offspring are the results of incest.
No reasonable person would believe this and thus it can't be considered libel.
You must have been homeschooled. I can name half a dozen teachers that I would have liked to see die. That doesn't mean that I would have ever killed them.
The game design wasn't particularly bad, and in some ways it was ahead of its time. E.g., Daikatana tried to have a story in a FPS long before Half-Life, for example.
Hello? Marathon had an extremely deep and involved plot, story and backstory. Released in 1994, by Bungie.
It was released more than 5 years before Daikatana, and almost 10 years before Half Life 2.
I think his point was that he just doesn't want the CPU running at 100% all the time. I don't run any of these distributed computing programs for the same reason.
What we seem to have here is a failure to communicate.
I don't understand what's wrong with running at 100% CPU usage if the process will yield time to anything else that needs it.
I don't believe that you understand what "nice" means.
I have zero sympathy for idiots who make their job harder, and by extension, make the police have to be that much more confrontational to get the job done.
Fuck that. Their job should be hard. Every obstacle that they face means that they have less time for bothering innocent people. If all of their time is consumed with navigating the laws in place to protect the people, they won't have as much time to abuse people and violate their rights.
I suspect in this case, the homeowner in question was being a total a-hole, so the police overreacted. Both are most likely in the wrong.
Their son wasn't home. They told the police that he wasn't home. They're not obligated to tell them anything else. It's not illegal to be an asshole, even to the police.
Break down cooperation, co (together) operate(work), work together. The police have to hold up their end of cooperation. If they come to you with a sour attitude why would you want to work with them?
The owner probably should have had a sign posted, to avoid all of this legal hassle. Simply stating to the officer that he or she is being videotaped makes for a shaky "who are you going to believe" argument.
According to the available information he DID have a sign posted. And since he was videotaping the encounter, there is no question about who to believe. They tape speaks for itself.
Hopefully he was smart enough to make duplicated before he got busted.
When I was visited by the BATF about ten years ago, I didn't completely open the door. I cracked it (with the chain still in place) and talked to them through the opening for about 5 minutes. When they had answered all of my questions regarding their visit, THEN I invited them in to clear up their questions.
An hour and a half later they were out of my life.
You are correct though, the police are not your friends.
Slashdot Mirror
Most of the world thinks so, too bad the Bush administration doesn't. :^(
The Bush adminstration and the Clinton administration before it. It's one decision that both of them got right.
LK
The NSA contends that nationwide wiretaps are necessary. That doesn't make it so.
They may very well be "necessary", too bad for the NSA that they're not legal.
That's an immensely selfish position, given the long-term civillian damage landmines have caused.
Given a choice between the possibility of a civilian casualty and the eventiality of bullets being fired at me, the choice is simple. Regardless, I'm not going to war. The only wars that we're likely to enter during my useful lifetime as a soldier are going to be against countries that I have no personal beefs with; but that's an entirely different discussion.
I've been to towns in Cambodia where close to half of the inhabitants were missing limbs from old landmines. I'm given to understand that similar conditions exist in parts of Africa.
And every single injury is a tragedy. That still doesn't change the fact that in times of war, land mines allow the use of smaller infantry forces and result in lower casualties for the side deploying them.
The anthrax research is for a vaccine. In order to make a vaccine, you have to make some anthrax. To say the US 'stockpiles bioweapons' in an abuse of both words.
How many other diseases that can be treated with antibiotics are we developing vaccines for? While immunological work does go on, it's just as much a cover for hoarding anthrax spores. Do you believe, even for a minute, that if the US was in bad shape in a future war that we'd hesitate to use them? For the sake of argument; if we had a million Chinese troops about to invade the continental US, anthrax spores would be falling like snow.
LK
Yes, they have utility, but giving them up does not mean that North Korea can just roll into Seoul. We can make up for their functionality in other ways.
I'm not in the military. The people who are say that they're necessary. I'm not going to be on the front lines anywhere and a minefield means that fewer of us have to be there.
In a similar vein, we don't stock biological weapons, and yet somehow dictatorships haven't taken over the globe yet.
Actually, we DO have stocks of biological and chemical weapons.
Sure, they're "defensive" but let's be honest. Anthrax is anthrax.
LK
For me, instead of Zork it was Starship Columbus.
Falcon, Carrier Command and then later Fallout (+2,+Tactics) have caused me to invest years of my life and I wouldn't do any of it differently.
LK
Of course, mines alone wouldn't have kept the North Koreans out. It's possible that without mines they would still not have overrun South Korea. That's not the point. The point is that sometimes bad things are necessary to prevent even worse things.
I'm sure that the vast majority of humanity would prefer that the world wasn't a place where bombs, guns and land mines are necessary. But getting rid of them will only empower despots to commit far greater evils. It's naive to think otherwise. It's a tragedy whenever someone is injured or killed by a no longer needed munition, but those munitions have helped to protect an even greater number of people from harm.
LK
I'm not quite sure on the timeframe, but overall I agree with your point. With very few exceptions, there's no reason why a mine needs to be active and dangerous 20 years after it was placed.
LK
Do you concede that the minefield that's at the DMZ has helped to keep North Korea from invading South Korea?
LK
Do you concede that the minefield that's at the DMZ has helped to keep North Korea from invading South Korea?
LK
Monsters we are lest monsters we become.
Landmines are awful, but letting genocidal dictators rule the world is worse.
LK
Machine shops aren't necessarily the most healthy environments for people or computers.
The heat and the dust in the air can contributed to shortened lifespans for equipment. If that 10 year old HDD dies, why replace the whole machine when you can replace the bad HDD and use FreeDOS?
LK
Which only happens to be 99% of the file formats that Joe Public is likely to run into.
Puh-leeeze!
Regular people are going to encounter MP3 more than anything else. End of story.
When a tech-savvy friend has some cool music and the n00b wants a copy, it's going to be MP3. When someone discovers the wonders of P2P leeching, they're going to get MP3s.
My step-father knows what an MP3 player is. This is a man who knows almost nothing about computers and related technology, but he knows MP3. If a linux distro comes with KDE & XMMS and will play MP3s, the vast majority of computer users would never notice the difference.
LK
I jumped the Apple ship formally about 6 years ago. It had been informal since about a year before.
I just got tired of all of the excuse making. I could take my money and pick out all of the components that I want and build a PC for less than I'd spend on a comparable Mac. I could upgrade all of the parts that I wanted to on the PC that I built because ATX is what everyone uses, to upgrade my Mac I'd be limited in what I could choose short of replacing the entire machine.
I understand that Apple feels like they'd disappear if their customers had too much choice and that the cloners were murdering them. Power Computing was releasing faster machines at a lower price than Apple. Daystar had a lock on high end performance. Umax had the low end all sown up. Apple did what Apple had to do to survive, I get that. My choice was about what best met my computing and financial needs and not about what was best for Apple's bottom line.
LK
Comment is not very insightful, as it merely says the same exact thing as I was saying; the change is in marketing names, not anything else.
No, I didn't repeat you. You are incorrect. Last fm is a standalone player. Audioscrobbler is a plugin for myriad players.
LK
Audioscrobbler started off as a school project, but after a while, they went commercial, and are now last.fm.
Last fm is a standalone player that implements the Audioscrobbler functionality. Audioscrobbler is STILL available in plugin form for Winamp, iTunes and Windows Media Player.
Perhaps the submitter is a dolt but at least he read the fucking page.
(Last fm == Standalone player) && (Audioscrobbler == plugin)
LK
IANAL, but I can read. Another criterium for libel is if a "reasonable person" would believe that the statement is true.
For example if someone said that Bill and Hillary Clinton or George and Laura Bush were siblings because they're from the same state and have the same last name and thus their offspring are the results of incest.
No reasonable person would believe this and thus it can't be considered libel.
LK
You must have been homeschooled. I can name half a dozen teachers that I would have liked to see die. That doesn't mean that I would have ever killed them.
LK
The game design wasn't particularly bad, and in some ways it was ahead of its time. E.g., Daikatana tried to have a story in a FPS long before Half-Life, for example.
Hello? Marathon had an extremely deep and involved plot, story and backstory. Released in 1994, by Bungie.
It was released more than 5 years before Daikatana, and almost 10 years before Half Life 2.
LK
(The mother is certain, the father always uncertain.)
If this wasn't the case Maury Povich would be out of business.
LK
There should be a new moderation catagory.
"I disagree with this poster's politics"
LK
I think his point was that he just doesn't want the CPU running at 100% all the time. I don't run any of these distributed computing programs for the same reason.
What we seem to have here is a failure to communicate.
I don't understand what's wrong with running at 100% CPU usage if the process will yield time to anything else that needs it.
I don't believe that you understand what "nice" means.
LK
Where in the fuck were you people during the Clinton administration?
Seriously, although Bush's "Free Speech Zones" are anathema to our constitution, the last guy wasn't any better.
LK
July 1956
22 MORGAN ST
NASHUA, NH 03064
(603) XXX-XXXX
I wonder if I should call and ask for a copy of the tape.
LK
I have zero sympathy for idiots who make their job harder, and by extension, make the police have to be that much more confrontational to get the job done.
Fuck that. Their job should be hard. Every obstacle that they face means that they have less time for bothering innocent people. If all of their time is consumed with navigating the laws in place to protect the people, they won't have as much time to abuse people and violate their rights.
I suspect in this case, the homeowner in question was being a total a-hole, so the police overreacted. Both are most likely in the wrong.
Their son wasn't home. They told the police that he wasn't home. They're not obligated to tell them anything else. It's not illegal to be an asshole, even to the police.
Break down cooperation, co (together) operate(work), work together. The police have to hold up their end of cooperation. If they come to you with a sour attitude why would you want to work with them?
LK
The owner probably should have had a sign posted, to avoid all of this legal hassle. Simply stating to the officer that he or she is being videotaped makes for a shaky "who are you going to believe" argument.
According to the available information he DID have a sign posted. And since he was videotaping the encounter, there is no question about who to believe. They tape speaks for itself.
Hopefully he was smart enough to make duplicated before he got busted.
LK
When I was visited by the BATF about ten years ago, I didn't completely open the door. I cracked it (with the chain still in place) and talked to them through the opening for about 5 minutes. When they had answered all of my questions regarding their visit, THEN I invited them in to clear up their questions.
An hour and a half later they were out of my life.
You are correct though, the police are not your friends.
LK