I agree that there are much more important problems in Ghana than lack of internet access.
Then why is this happening?
I think that in this case, big business sees the internet as a cultural thing more than infrastructure. They think of it like McDonalds or Mickey Mouse. Its a product. And the best part is that the product itself brings only ads and new-fangled ways to buy and fetishize other products. The introduction of the internet is only a tool to ensure the 'emerging' nations have the consumer mindset.
You are right, CDs should really cost about 10 dollars, just like an LP album would have back in the day. Interestingly, enough, the artists are still paid their royalty fees based on the old 10 dollar album price, so you should be assured that only the record company is profiting. Read more at Negativland.
until that happens, and they release a Linux version without ads
Listen people, there is AIM for linux. It has no ads. I am running it right now, and would give my SN as proof, but obviously that would be immediately abused. I have never understood all of this mess about everybuddy, etc, when the program is there, straight from the company itself. It doesnt work w/ICQ, but is very stable and has no ads, stock tickers, and all that other garbage. Anyway, now you know...
If your technology is good enough in its own right, there's no need to clutter it with so-called "content" to keep bringing users back.
In an ideal world, or more correctly on an ideal internet, you would be correct. However, I'm afraid the truth is slightly different. Power-users, the sort of tech smart people who read/. and such, are please with simple solutions. People like my parents are going to continue to use Yahoo and Altavista etc because of all their little 'features'. A cluttered web page filled with links means an advanced powerful site to them, i.e. lots of buttons = lots of options = lots of power. The savvy tech people may understand the importance of elegant design, but the hordes of psuedo-computer literate people do not. No matter how often I explain or show Google to this sort of person, they continue to use the big names, or worse whatever the 'search' button in their browser brings up. My father is absolutely convinced that search engines reside on the local computer and that the only one availabe is the one that comes up from the search button. This leads to hilarious statements like: 'The search engine we have at work is much better.'
Also, does anybody know how this works in physical print?
In the US, at least, freedom of speech is valued enough that pretty much anything is allowed to be printed. A good example would be Loompanics who published such things as the original Anarchist's Cookbook, and other devious materials. I think that the linking is a sub-issue raised by this case. The real debate is about whether or not code is speech. If Kaplan thought that all computer code counted as such, then it would be free and under the same provisions as Loompanic's mischevious manuals, or books on illegal drugs like PIHKAL. (try Erowid for more info.) However, he is clearly of the opinion that the source code is not speech like a book, but is something else (or more likely Kaplan is not computer-savvy enough to grasp the difference between source code and an actual program). If I was as cynical now as I was in high-school, I would add: Big business won even though they weren't actually right. Welcome to America.
I am also not a lawyer, but I thought it was a little confusing at first. It seemed as though an unrelated company was being sued for the perceived sins of another. However, as another USA Today article points out:
"Gnutella was developed by rogue programmers at Nullsoft Inc., a subsidiary of America Online Inc., who briefly posted the program on its Web site on March 14."
That makes much more sense doesn't it? If AOL is the parent of Nullsoft, the 'offending' company, then of course they got sued.
the line "I have never pined for Outlook" is hilarious.
Seriously though, I doubt microsoft will port much if anything to Linux. The reason MS dominates so often is that any windows box you buy, comes straight from the manufacturer with lots of its software installed. Of course IE beat out Netscape in browser wars, its right there on the desktop when you boot up for the first time. Similarly, I dont think people, especially not-so-techy people, will go out of they're way to install new MS software on a Linux box when it comes with free defaults ready to go. Add to that the fact that much of Linux's appeal is that it is free, who would want to ruin that by shelling out for some proprietary software?
The napster alternatives arent being sued, so they servers will presumably not be shut down. They have a low enough profile that the RIAA will probably never come down on them. So, while napster works, use it, and then transfer to another. Fresh Meat should have plenty of options. The one my friends use is called Gnutella. good luck getting music for free, i'll still be using vinyl, -Kabloona
This is slightly off-topic, but I hope that this post and story underscore the importance of responsible drug use. That means doing your research. Would you try to use a new program without reading the manual/man page?
To those that think drugs are evil, remember Prozac, Ritalin, the heart medicine you take, the pills your grandmother takes every day, and then think about just how much you actually know about the things you put in your body daily.
Do your research -- Enjoy drugs w/peace of mind.
-Kabloona "We can't stop here, this is bat country!"
When you look at the configuration page for ordering a linux box from dell the field marked "Bundled Software" reads "NO Microsoft Office." I think thats a config lock I can live with...
I definitely agree. nVidia, although not necessarily "profiting" from open source code, is benefiting from it and not following through by making the module open. If DeCSS can cause such a ruckus over copyright issues, the next time this happens the offending company should be required to make a donation to the FSF or other organization. peas, -Kabloona
Gutenberg is a great resource for books, but everyone should check out attrition.org
Attrition hosts the defaced web page archive seen on HNN, in addition to having zillions of text files. They also have a huge movie archive which includes every funny/disturbing movie that ever landed in your inbox.
I don't agree that their view is focused solely on "security." The legislators who designed this program probably do believe that they are enforcing a secure environment for children, but Jon makes the point that the Pinkerton people are focused solely on making money. It would be the same thing if you convinced your boss to use for the whole office. He wouldn't be interested in the "open source movement," just the fact that the bottom line is vastly improved by free software. The suits will sit there and justify their actions with pretty reasons, but its still all about the cash. dollar dollar bill, y'all -Kabloona
It's never going to die, just look at slashdot today as an example.
Boy you guys really are a bunch of geeks. The story posted 6 minutes before this one (paid open source hacking) has only 38 posts or so, while this one has over 100, (numbers accurate as of 9:20 EST) 12 of which are moderated at +3.
Clearly, you can see where the interest of/. readership really lies.
Linux? Linux my photon!
It's all about silly sci-fi television shows, and of course natalie portman and hot grits.
Personally, I'd have to say that the professor has overreacted. Of course students will defame professors, it is inevitable. I can't imagine that a tenured professor will be able to prove damages were caused by a student bad-mouthing him on the internet. And if he can't do that, he won't have much of a case for libel.
This story is most interesting because it's representative of academia's new watchfulness of the internet. I'm a student at columbia university, and we have a controversy surrounding a service called Versity.com. Basically, versity pays people to take notes in the larger lecture courses. These notes get posted on the internet and students can join versity (i believe for free) and see the notes. The professors here are concerned about the intellectual property of their lectures. My history professor told the class that some people in the university structure were considering suing versity.com. One of my friends takes notes for versity, and his teacher made him stand up in a huge lecture hall, and chewed him out for the above reason, and for undermining the "academic integrity" of the school.
Interesting, no? Although we generally think of higher education as at least one stronghold of the net, and of free speech, it seems like this isn't quite as true as we imagined. Especially not in the non-science disciplines.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree that there are much more important problems in Ghana than lack of internet access.
Then why is this happening?
I think that in this case, big business sees the internet as a cultural thing more than infrastructure. They think of it like McDonalds or Mickey Mouse. Its a product. And the best part is that the product itself brings only ads and new-fangled ways to buy and fetishize other products. The introduction of the internet is only a tool to ensure the 'emerging' nations have the consumer mindset.
Just some ideas...
peas,
-Kabloona
You are right, CDs should really cost about 10 dollars, just like an LP album would have back in the day. Interestingly, enough, the artists are still paid their royalty fees based on the old 10 dollar album price, so you should be assured that only the record company is profiting. Read more at Negativland.
peas,
-Kabloona
until that happens, and they release a Linux version without ads
Listen people, there is AIM for linux. It has no ads. I am running it right now, and would give my SN as proof, but obviously that would be immediately abused. I have never understood all of this mess about everybuddy, etc, when the program is there, straight from the company itself. It doesnt work w/ICQ, but is very stable and has no ads, stock tickers, and all that other garbage.
Anyway, now you know...
peas,
-Kabloona
but I'm really stoned right now, could you repeat that?
peas, -Kabloona
Linux users shouldn't expect to be able to use AOL Instant Messenger until after AOL for Linux has been released.
Well, this strikes me as somewhat amusing as I am running AIM for linux as we speak. Interested parties can check AOL's site.
peas,
-Kabloona
If your technology is good enough in its own right, there's no need to clutter it with so-called "content" to keep bringing users back.
/. and such, are please with simple solutions. People like my parents are going to continue to use Yahoo and Altavista etc because of all their little 'features'. A cluttered web page filled with links means an advanced powerful site to them, i.e. lots of buttons = lots of options = lots of power. The savvy tech people may understand the importance of elegant design, but the hordes of psuedo-computer literate people do not. No matter how often I explain or show Google to this sort of person, they continue to use the big names, or worse whatever the 'search' button in their browser brings up. My father is absolutely convinced that search engines reside on the local computer and that the only one availabe is the one that comes up from the search button. This leads to hilarious statements like: 'The search engine we have at work is much better.'
In an ideal world, or more correctly on an ideal internet, you would be correct. However, I'm afraid the truth is slightly different. Power-users, the sort of tech smart people who read
peas,
-Kabloona
The above article is excellent.
It can be summed up like this: "If we used Unix we wouldnt have this problem."
hehehehhe
peas,
-Kabloona
Also, does anybody know how this works in physical print?
In the US, at least, freedom of speech is valued enough that pretty much anything is allowed to be printed. A good example would be Loompanics who published such things as the original Anarchist's Cookbook, and other devious materials.
I think that the linking is a sub-issue raised by this case. The real debate is about whether or not code is speech. If Kaplan thought that all computer code counted as such, then it would be free and under the same provisions as Loompanic's mischevious manuals, or books on illegal drugs like PIHKAL. (try Erowid for more info.) However, he is clearly of the opinion that the source code is not speech like a book, but is something else (or more likely Kaplan is not computer-savvy enough to grasp the difference between source code and an actual program).
If I was as cynical now as I was in high-school, I would add: Big business won even though they weren't actually right. Welcome to America.
peas,
-Kabloona
Oh yesh.
I'm currently working on my FortranOS. If you thought PerlOS was slow, just you wait. Boots in minutes.
obviuosly up to no good,
-Kabloona
I am also not a lawyer, but I thought it was a little confusing at first. It seemed as though an unrelated company was being sued for the perceived sins of another. However, as another USA Today article points out:
"Gnutella was developed by rogue programmers at Nullsoft Inc., a subsidiary of America Online Inc., who briefly posted the program on its Web site on March 14."
That makes much more sense doesn't it? If AOL is the parent of Nullsoft, the 'offending' company, then of course they got sued.
peas,
Kabloona
the line "I have never pined for Outlook" is hilarious.
Seriously though, I doubt microsoft will port much if anything to Linux. The reason MS dominates so often is that any windows box you buy, comes straight from the manufacturer with lots of its software installed. Of course IE beat out Netscape in browser wars, its right there on the desktop when you boot up for the first time. Similarly, I dont think people, especially not-so-techy people, will go out of they're way to install new MS software on a Linux box when it comes with free defaults ready to go. Add to that the fact that much of Linux's appeal is that it is free, who would want to ruin that by shelling out for some proprietary software?
peas,
-Kabloona
The napster alternatives arent being sued, so they servers will presumably not be shut down. They have a low enough profile that the RIAA will probably never come down on them. So, while napster works, use it, and then transfer to another. Fresh Meat should have plenty of options. The one my friends use is called Gnutella. good luck getting music for free, i'll still be using vinyl, -Kabloona
Everyone should check out the resources available at places such as:
Erowid
The Lycaeum
Ecstasy.org
Dancesafe
To those that think drugs are evil, remember Prozac, Ritalin, the heart medicine you take, the pills your grandmother takes every day, and then think about just how much you actually know about the things you put in your body daily.
Do your research -- Enjoy drugs w/peace of mind.
-Kabloona
"We can't stop here, this is bat country!"
I think thats a config lock I can live with...
peas,
-Kabloona
Yep. http://par tners.nytimes.com/library/national/061300los-alamo s-theft.html
This is the right NYT link. The other is also bust. The proper link is: http://www.cnn.com/2 000/US/06/12/nuclear.secrets.02/index.html
peas,
-Kabloona
I definitely agree. nVidia, although not necessarily "profiting" from open source code, is benefiting from it and not following through by making the module open. If DeCSS can cause such a ruckus over copyright issues, the next time this happens the offending company should be required to make a donation to the FSF or other organization.
peas,
-Kabloona
Attrition hosts the defaced web page archive seen on HNN, in addition to having zillions of text files. They also have a huge movie archive which includes every funny/disturbing movie that ever landed in your inbox.
Check it out, its a great resource.
peas,
-Nick
I don't agree that their view is focused solely on "security." The legislators who designed this program probably do believe that they are enforcing a secure environment for children, but Jon makes the point that the Pinkerton people are focused solely on making money. It would be the same thing if you convinced your boss to use for the whole office. He wouldn't be interested in the "open source movement," just the fact that the bottom line is vastly improved by free software. The suits will sit there and justify their actions with pretty reasons, but its still all about the cash. dollar dollar bill, y'all -Kabloona
It's never going to die, just look at slashdot today as an example.
/. readership really lies.
Boy you guys really are a bunch of geeks. The story posted 6 minutes before this one (paid open source hacking) has only 38 posts or so, while this one has over 100, (numbers accurate as of 9:20 EST) 12 of which are moderated at +3.
Clearly, you can see where the interest of
Linux? Linux my photon!
It's all about silly sci-fi television shows, and of course natalie portman and hot grits.
Go outside and do something active.
-Nick
This story is most interesting because it's representative of academia's new watchfulness of the internet. I'm a student at columbia university, and we have a controversy surrounding a service called Versity.com. Basically, versity pays people to take notes in the larger lecture courses. These notes get posted on the internet and students can join versity (i believe for free) and see the notes. The professors here are concerned about the intellectual property of their lectures. My history professor told the class that some people in the university structure were considering suing versity.com. One of my friends takes notes for versity, and his teacher made him stand up in a huge lecture hall, and chewed him out for the above reason, and for undermining the "academic integrity" of the school.
Interesting, no? Although we generally think of higher education as at least one stronghold of the net, and of free speech, it seems like this isn't quite as true as we imagined. Especially not in the non-science disciplines.
peas,
-Kabloona