Deja is providing a service which is in demand, as is evidenced by the large number of lusers in this forum complaining about it.
Deja isn't providing the service which is in demand (Usenet archival). That's why there is 'complaining'. If said service in demand is no longer available or continues to be trivialized and shunted aside by the company, Deja will be 'out' when they go out of business from the loss of customers.
Deja provides this service for free, so there is no legal avenue for any of their lusers to require improved service. Nor can their lusers threaten to withhold payment.
Who ever mentioned legal matters? If Deja gets lost in the strands of the web because of its ill-advised attempt to become a product portal (such a 'last century' concept!), they will lose whatever market share they still have from attrition and eventually cease operations - or try another web fad of the moment when the cash flow crunch comes. OUT!
Deja is apparently the best provider in this market segment, so there will be no migration of customers to competing services.
What market? Certainly you don't mean that Deja is the best provider among the dime-a-dozen 'product rating' and 'product comparison' services? It seems (to me) to be to be the height of foolishness to give up on the unique and important service that made your company/brand known and used widely throughout the net (effectively what Deja did in its business model switch). Instead of building on the market segment they were dominant in and branching out from there into related areas, Deja stuffed Usenet into the back closet and jumped onto the latest net fads to be an also-ran among the myriad 'portals' and 'product' sites that currently clutter the web. Sounds like a losing and ultimately fatal strategy to me.
And that's why Deja will most likely be 'out' if they don't refocus soon - first on bringing back the Usenet archive (which should be their #1 priority in my opinion) and then dumping the extraneous aspects of their site that are overdone and duplicated elsewhere, exchanging those for a narrower and more specialized focus that their company can truly be ascendant in. Perhaps they'll even have some openings for those looking to be the 'internet historians' that we've been talking about the past few days?
In the end, it's better to be a Deja that provides a solid, well-known, and widely used service to the online world than try and fail at being one of a million Yahoo! wannabes.
What do people have against Deja? I don't see what's so wrong with it...
First, they switch their company from being the top player in providing a good, useful, and focused service (Usenet posting and archival), to become just another one of the myriad 'me-too' portal sites with a low-grade product comparison and rating scheme tacked on.
Secondly, they then took the one part of their service that was unique and served an important purpose for the online community (the Usenet archive) and place it offline for the last 3 1/2 months... and who knows (if?) when it will ever return?
Whatever happened to doing one thing better than anyone else as a viable business model, instead of having everyone trying to to the same things badly?
The Deja Development Monkey said... Of course, you shouldn't have to understand, you're just a 'consumer' of the service.
And aren't companies, even dot.coms, theoretically supposed be give at least lip service to the maxim that 'the consumer is always right'? The attitude that "mere consumers" have no need to know why corporate actions are taken is a serious problem generally, and in the specific case of Deja's removal of the Usenet archive, the 'blackout' of information as to why it was done has probably contributed to more ill feelings toward the company than the actual takedown of the archive itself.
Actually, the specific information that you just shared with us is exactly what Deja (and other companies/services) SHOULD be telling their consumers when a major change like the removal of the Usenet archive is done.
People can understand and be tolerant of the considerable issues in moving the company, compacting and transferring the data to new servers, etc... but its hard to have empathy for vague, unjustified 'reasons' and hollow platitudes 'promising' to return the archive... someday... that seem to be stonewalling and cover-up. (Which is basically all that Deja has publicly posted on the subject.)
Thanks for posting, Deja Development Monkey! Your one explanation has been more enlightening than months of emails to the company itself.
That's an interesting (and hopeful!) switch back for dejanews.com, as it pointed to the main page ever since their switch to a... well, whatever Deja is supposed to be. Their customer rating/review concept never seemed to be focused or viable, but I digress. Perhaps this return of dejanews.com to point to the Usenet archive is a sign that it will be separated again (somewhat) upon its return?
Secondly, how long is it going to be for their Usenet archive to return, after all? It's been "temporarily" offline since early May(?) - first their excuse was that they were 'changing servers' and now the excuse seems to be that they're reconfiguring/cleaning/optimizing the archive. Whatever that consists of. In any case, it certainly shouldn't be taking nearly four months to accomplish, despite the disclaimer of 'back in a few months'. Does anyone have some insight into just what this 'reconfiguring' would consist of? Deja can't seriously be doing it slowly by hand, though it seems that way...
> Miniskirt-clad girls save universe
> Posted by CmdrTaco on Friday August 18, @08:25AM
> from the roketto-ga-sugoi dept.
Arrrrrgh! Now I'm going to have the Chu Chu Rocket commercial jingle going through my head for the rest of the day. I swear, that is the most insidiously addicting little song... 'chu chu roketto ga sugoi... neko no kowai... TSUBABABA!' ^_^
It seems that if the speed of light *is* an absolute limit, that the contact between galactic species would have to be done by 'machines' first (if not wholly) - whether by a completely artificial intelligence or a human consciousness 'downloaded' onto silicon for the extraterrestrial trip.
Unless we're able to achieve near-relativistic speeds in future space exploration, there's almost no way for biological organisms to make the trip to anything but the closest star systems (Alpha Centauri, etc.) within a decent time period. However, if you use a mechanism, it's possible to send it off somewhere (at a much higher speed than a biological construct could survive) and have it still fully functional whenever and wherever it arrives.
I can't find it now, but I read a few months ago about a strategy for 'human' colonization of the galaxy - assuming that the speed of light is unbreakable and that human consciousness could be able to be 'digitized' and sent as part of a machine. We start here on Terra, and send probes to our nearest neighbors... the probes arrive and explore, then start on building the capability to reproduce and send their _own_ probes out further within a hundred years or so of their arrival... so on and so forth. The calculation worked out that by using this method "we" would explore/colonize the entire galaxy within a million years. (With the poor biological 'Human Classic' organisms to follow on much later, perhaps in cryo-sleep ships or such.)
In any case, it seems to make sense to send the exploration/construction probes/mechanisms first to establish the beginnings of infrastructure, so the biological colonizers (us) already have a basic life support and technological system set up when they arrive at their New World.
Deja's ENTIRE archive of Usenet prior to May 1999 has been removed for the past few months, while Deja 'moves its servers'. Taking long enough, isn't it?
With RemarQ gone, does this leave anyone else as a Usenet webportal or search capability? And if Deja now decides not to bring its archive back... well, I guess there's no proof that there was a vibrant civilization on the 'internet' prior to the Web after all.
Switching Formats (VHS-to-DVD) in Mid-Series?
on
Anime Moves To DVD
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· Score: 1
One concern that should be addressed as part of this overall changeover from VHS-to-DVD are the effects *within* the release timeframe of a particular series... For example, the first thirteen episodes of Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena) were released by Central Park Media in subtitled VHS starting back in November of 98... however, they didn't obtain the rights for the next set of episodes (14-26) until just recently (announced at Anime Expo last week). Unfortunately, also stated at Anime Expo by CPM is that they (like the other companies) are phasing out subtitled VHS sales - which may only be available as 'special preorders' in the future. Which brings up the likelihood that future Utena will _only_ be available on DVD: if not the batch of episodes that are in the process of production, then certainly when the final episodes (27-39) are domestically released sometime in the future. I'm sure that Utena isn't the only anime title which is in this 'predicament', and is certainly likely to remain an issue in the future as the VHS-to-DVD move expands to the 'mainstream'. I don't have a problem with the release of *new* anime titles exclusively on DVD if the company involved wishes to do so... but I do have issues with a company FORCING such a change upon its consumers in the middle of an anime title's release. I'd like to see a commitment to continuing subtitled and VHS availability for those series _already on the market_ that still have upcoming episodes to be released, so we (as consumers) aren't required to have half a series on VHS and half on DVD.
Online Solar Activity Monitor
on
G3 Solar Storm
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· Score: 4
For those who are interested, a current solar activity (X-ray flare and geomagnetic storm) monitor is available at Majestic Research, which also has html for adding the monitor to your own website as well.
Re:DC netplay impressions from a Sega fan
on
Sega Dreamcast: $0
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· Score: 1
>Right now, there's only one game supported, >ChuChu Rocket, which is basically Hungry Hungry >Hippos on speed and is entertaining beyond >belief. (If you haven't seen the infamous CCR >commercial, you must download it now:P)
Beware the CCR commerical! It's immediately addictive (online crack) and you'll never get the music out of your head once you hear it...
...and what makes them entertaining is to read something believable at first that isn't revealed to be a prank until you're about halfway through.
It's NOT posting articles in 'Swedish Chef' or Pig Latin or whatever, which isn't funny... especially not the second time around. (If they wanted to get a snicker, they should have done one in '3733t hax0r sp33k' if anything.)
Although I understand it may be difficult to come up with something original on the humor level of the Onion or Segfault, it's not like the/. crew has to do this more than once a year... so far today, I'm very disappointed in the intelligence level of the/. editors. Who let 'Timothy' on the server without adult supervision?
There is a 'real-time' solar activity monitor which analyzes and summarizes the current status of X-rays and the geomagnetic field every ten minutes from data downloaded from the NOAA Space Environment Center using its satellites and terrestrial stations.
There's a nice little html code available, so you can add the X-ray flare and geomagnetic storm monitor to your own website as well... check out some of the other interesting pages on the site, like the one with daily solar images of different types from spacecraft (SOHO) and ground observatories.
But is it a problem of women getting out of or away from computers altogether, or are many of them just shifting their emphasis within the realm of computing and the net?
Along with the rise of the web and the popularization of the internet comes the broadening of careers that the majority of people consider within the scope of 'information technology' - its not all programmers and MIS anymore. In light of the sweeping changes that have occurred in only the past few years, are women instead seeking majors and emphases that are useful in IT but not part of the 'computer science' curricula of universities?
I personally know of quite a few female acquaintances whose interest in computers have shifted in such a manner, from the 'traditional' CS areas into other fields related to computing, especially graphic design and communications/media - where they fully intend to have a future in IT, and a career in computers... just not as coders or engineers, but as designers and content providers instead.
As an example of a change in what women percieve as more attractive options to CS, it certainly seems that there is a *very high* proportion of females in the area of 'webdesigning', especially in coming up with the most avant-garde and creative sites.
Basically, is it just a percieved problem that fewer females are becoming CS majors, or are they gravitating to other positions in the computing world instead?
Salon has also posted an article today (Feb 4th) on the Andover/Slashdot+VA Linux merger entitled The Shape Of Open Source To Come, including comments from Rob Malda at LinuxWorld on the situation...
It's subtitled: "VA Linux purchases Andover.net, corporate parent to Slashdot. Will the "news for nerds" site maintain its editorial independence?" and basically sees the development as being negative for the independence of Slashdot.
National Public Radio's Talk Of The Nation program is in the midst of devoting an hour this afternoon (28 Jan) to discussion of the DoubleClick issue, and internet privacy in general. (http://www.npr.org/programs/totn/)
For anyone who is interested, a realplayer replay of the program should be available by tomorrow at http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnps02fm.cfm?MM=1&YY =2000&PrgID=5).
LOL, everyone knows that the World Wide Web is (at least the vessel of) the Antichrist.;)
The numeral 6 corresponds to the Hebrew letter 'waw', typically rendered as 'w' in the Latin alphabet... so that WWW=666, the Beast whose number is six hundred three score and six.
And what clinches it is the following passage from Revelations 13:16/17... "and he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads; and that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."
Obviously, St. John was referring to the use of a password to get online and encrypted credit card information to purchase goods on the internet!;D
The citation of "purposes and principles of the United Nations" is a specific reference to Articles 1 and 2 of the United Nations Charter. This outlines the basic importance of maintaining international peace and security and promoting and encouraging respect for human rights, as well as recognizing the sovereignty and domestic jurisdiction of Member States. Recall that the Charter was drafted during the concluding months of World War Two, when the spectre of devastating conflict and massive violations of human rights were still going on.
What Article 29(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is saying is that the provisions of the Declaration (such as Article 19 on freedom of opinion and expression) can not be used as an excuse to violate the broader 'purposes and principles'... such as developing and implementing targeted and systematic ethnic hatred propaganda campaigns in order to cause conflicts or incitement to genocide.
Just as the defense "I was just following orders" doesn't apply in such situations, Article 29(3) ensures that "I was just exercising my rights in the Universal Declaration" can not be used as a justification for violating the rights of others.
The United Nations resolution that Mater_Tenebrarum is concerned with (General Assembly Resolution 3379 in 1975) which tied Zionism to racism in recommending that Member States take voluntary measures (such as sanctions) against Israel because of their actions during the occupation of Palestinian territories, was repealed in 1991 with General Assembly Resolution 46/86.
The article cited by Roblimo is referring to the International Forum on the Holocaust conference and the mere call for action against internet racism made by the countries there. The United Nations connection doesn't even come in except as a tacked on citation at the end of the article mentioning the preparatory meeting of experts for the World Conference on Racism in February. The longer and more comprehensive report on the conference by the Associated Press today only included _one line_ about how the subject of internet racism could be proposed for inclusion as a discussion topic at the upcoming World Conference on Racism in 2001. That's all. Hardly the insinuation made in the top of the thread that the United Nations is actively preparing to take action against racist propaganda on the internet.
For those concerned about the US position on such proposals, at the Holocaust conference the US envoy said that freedom of speech issues would prevent the US from supporting restrictions against racist activity on the Internet, but that hate groups could be monitored for "planning destructive activity."
As for what the Expert Commission is actually discussing in February in regards to the internet, it's a three hour session (part of a three day seminar) on the remedies available to victims of acts of racism and incitement to racial hatred on the internet; technical problems linked to prosecution of acts of racism on the internet; and the legal and technical questions of the issue (such as defining the act, the perpetrator of the act, responsibility of the servers and providers, competence of prosecutors, international cooperation in the judicial aspects).
What the United Nations is concerned with is the systematic use of the internet to exacerbate conflicts, facilitate 'ethnic cleansing', and target migrants or refugees by stoking ethnic hatred and intolerance - not people randomly using 'hate speech' in a chatroom or on usenet, or even the typical idiotic webpage spewing 'white vs. black' ideas. In this regard, the internet is seen as just another mass media tool in the arsenal of those promoting such ideas, similar to radio, television, and the press (as was used in Rwanda where the horrific genocide was sparked by inflammatory radio broadcasts and newspapers). I spent most of 1997 as a senior intelligence operations noncommissioned officer in support of the NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, and I've seen firsthand the use of the internet in this manner by all sides in that situation (Serbian, Croatian, and Bosniac), and the misrepresentations and lies became so bad that the High Commissioner (of the international community) in Bosnia had to place restrictions on the news broadcasts and webpostings of each sides' press agencies, lest they renew the conflict. The same tactics were used when the NATO action againt Serbia was ongoing, when all sorts of anti-Serb and anti-Kosovar sites sprang up online. You can see similar sites regarding nearly any major dispute in the world today: try Kashmir, or the ongoing Ethiopia-Eritrea war. The question we need to address is where the line lies between legitimate representation of views and propaganda sparking and leading to criminal acts, outright conflict and genocide.
As for the foreseeable future, the international community isn't even at the point of coming up with agreed upon definitions concerning the issue, much less finalizing guidelines, and plans of action for effectively combating such speech online, and is nowhere near the paranoid view expressed elsewhere in the thread that the United Nations is coming up with international laws, treaties, conventions, restrictions, etc promoting censorship or banning free speech on the internet.
For more background and information on the Third World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance, check out their website at http://www.un.org/rights/racism/
By the way, this is my first post to slashdot after lurking for a year.:) Hi everyone!
SenshiNeko (representing the Republic of The Gambia in the Security Council at the National Model United Nations Conference this year)
Slashdot Mirror
Deja is providing a service which is in demand, as is evidenced by the large number of lusers in this forum complaining about it.
Deja isn't providing the service which is in demand (Usenet archival). That's why there is 'complaining'. If said service in demand is no longer available or continues to be trivialized and shunted aside by the company, Deja will be 'out' when they go out of business from the loss of customers.
Deja provides this service for free, so there is no legal avenue for any of their lusers to require improved service. Nor can their lusers threaten to withhold payment.
Who ever mentioned legal matters? If Deja gets lost in the strands of the web because of its ill-advised attempt to become a product portal (such a 'last century' concept!), they will lose whatever market share they still have from attrition and eventually cease operations - or try another web fad of the moment when the cash flow crunch comes. OUT!
Deja is apparently the best provider in this market segment, so there will be no migration of customers to competing services.
What market? Certainly you don't mean that Deja is the best provider among the dime-a-dozen 'product rating' and 'product comparison' services? It seems (to me) to be to be the height of foolishness to give up on the unique and important service that made your company/brand known and used widely throughout the net (effectively what Deja did in its business model switch). Instead of building on the market segment they were dominant in and branching out from there into related areas, Deja stuffed Usenet into the back closet and jumped onto the latest net fads to be an also-ran among the myriad 'portals' and 'product' sites that currently clutter the web. Sounds like a losing and ultimately fatal strategy to me.
And that's why Deja will most likely be 'out' if they don't refocus soon - first on bringing back the Usenet archive (which should be their #1 priority in my opinion) and then dumping the extraneous aspects of their site that are overdone and duplicated elsewhere, exchanging those for a narrower and more specialized focus that their company can truly be ascendant in. Perhaps they'll even have some openings for those looking to be the 'internet historians' that we've been talking about the past few days?
In the end, it's better to be a Deja that provides a solid, well-known, and widely used service to the online world than try and fail at being one of a million Yahoo! wannabes.
What do people have against Deja? I don't see what's so wrong with it...
First, they switch their company from being the top player in providing a good, useful, and focused service (Usenet posting and archival), to become just another one of the myriad 'me-too' portal sites with a low-grade product comparison and rating scheme tacked on.
Secondly, they then took the one part of their service that was unique and served an important purpose for the online community (the Usenet archive) and place it offline for the last 3 1/2 months... and who knows (if?) when it will ever return?
Whatever happened to doing one thing better than anyone else as a viable business model, instead of having everyone trying to to the same things badly?
I am complaining about the facts that a big part of their archive has been offline for over six months now...
Strike one.
that their search engine doesn't work properly (wrong result counts, doesn't always take specified newsgroups into accout, etc)
Strike two.
and that they are turning it into yet another bloody portal site instead of sticking to a good and useful focused service.
Strike three. Deja's going to be 'out' if they don't straighten things up soon.
The Deja Development Monkey said...
Of course, you shouldn't have to understand, you're just a 'consumer' of the service.
And aren't companies, even dot.coms, theoretically supposed be give at least lip service to the maxim that 'the consumer is always right'? The attitude that "mere consumers" have no need to know why corporate actions are taken is a serious problem generally, and in the specific case of Deja's removal of the Usenet archive, the 'blackout' of information as to why it was done has probably contributed to more ill feelings toward the company than the actual takedown of the archive itself.
Actually, the specific information that you just shared with us is exactly what Deja (and other companies/services) SHOULD be telling their consumers when a major change like the removal of the Usenet archive is done.
People can understand and be tolerant of the considerable issues in moving the company, compacting and transferring the data to new servers, etc... but its hard to have empathy for vague, unjustified 'reasons' and hollow platitudes 'promising' to return the archive... someday... that seem to be stonewalling and cover-up. (Which is basically all that Deja has publicly posted on the subject.)
Thanks for posting, Deja Development Monkey! Your one explanation has been more enlightening than months of emails to the company itself.
That's an interesting (and hopeful!) switch back for dejanews.com, as it pointed to the main page ever since their switch to a... well, whatever Deja is supposed to be. Their customer rating/review concept never seemed to be focused or viable, but I digress. Perhaps this return of dejanews.com to point to the Usenet archive is a sign that it will be separated again (somewhat) upon its return?
Secondly, how long is it going to be for their Usenet archive to return, after all? It's been "temporarily" offline since early May(?) - first their excuse was that they were 'changing servers' and now the excuse seems to be that they're reconfiguring/cleaning/optimizing the archive. Whatever that consists of. In any case, it certainly shouldn't be taking nearly four months to accomplish, despite the disclaimer of 'back in a few months'. Does anyone have some insight into just what this 'reconfiguring' would consist of? Deja can't seriously be doing it slowly by hand, though it seems that way...
Sailormoon S is already in its second run on Cartoon Network (4 PM EST)...
As for the Outer Senshi:
Haruka became 'Amara' (ugh!)
Michiru became 'Michelle'
Setsuna became 'Trista' (huh?)
Hotaru became... HOTARU! ^_^
At least the dubbers got one name right.
> Miniskirt-clad girls save universe
> Posted by CmdrTaco on Friday August 18, @08:25AM
> from the roketto-ga-sugoi dept.
Arrrrrgh! Now I'm going to have the Chu Chu Rocket commercial jingle going through my head for the rest of the day. I swear, that is the most insidiously addicting little song... 'chu chu roketto ga sugoi... neko no kowai... TSUBABABA!' ^_^
It seems that if the speed of light *is* an absolute limit, that the contact between galactic species would have to be done by 'machines' first (if not wholly) - whether by a completely artificial intelligence or a human consciousness 'downloaded' onto silicon for the extraterrestrial trip.
Unless we're able to achieve near-relativistic speeds in future space exploration, there's almost no way for biological organisms to make the trip to anything but the closest star systems (Alpha Centauri, etc.) within a decent time period. However, if you use a mechanism, it's possible to send it off somewhere (at a much higher speed than a biological construct could survive) and have it still fully functional whenever and wherever it arrives.
I can't find it now, but I read a few months ago about a strategy for 'human' colonization of the galaxy - assuming that the speed of light is unbreakable and that human consciousness could be able to be 'digitized' and sent as part of a machine. We start here on Terra, and send probes to our nearest neighbors... the probes arrive and explore, then start on building the capability to reproduce and send their _own_ probes out further within a hundred years or so of their arrival... so on and so forth. The calculation worked out that by using this method "we" would explore/colonize the entire galaxy within a million years. (With the poor biological 'Human Classic' organisms to follow on much later, perhaps in cryo-sleep ships or such.)
In any case, it seems to make sense to send the exploration/construction probes/mechanisms first to establish the beginnings of infrastructure, so the biological colonizers (us) already have a basic life support and technological system set up when they arrive at their New World.
WHAT archive?
Deja's ENTIRE archive of Usenet prior to May 1999 has been removed for the past few months, while Deja 'moves its servers'. Taking long enough, isn't it?
With RemarQ gone, does this leave anyone else as a Usenet webportal or search capability? And if Deja now decides not to bring its archive back... well, I guess there's no proof that there was a vibrant civilization on the 'internet' prior to the Web after all.
One concern that should be addressed as part of this overall changeover from VHS-to-DVD are the effects *within* the release timeframe of a particular series... For example, the first thirteen episodes of Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena) were released by Central Park Media in subtitled VHS starting back in November of 98... however, they didn't obtain the rights for the next set of episodes (14-26) until just recently (announced at Anime Expo last week). Unfortunately, also stated at Anime Expo by CPM is that they (like the other companies) are phasing out subtitled VHS sales - which may only be available as 'special preorders' in the future. Which brings up the likelihood that future Utena will _only_ be available on DVD: if not the batch of episodes that are in the process of production, then certainly when the final episodes (27-39) are domestically released sometime in the future. I'm sure that Utena isn't the only anime title which is in this 'predicament', and is certainly likely to remain an issue in the future as the VHS-to-DVD move expands to the 'mainstream'. I don't have a problem with the release of *new* anime titles exclusively on DVD if the company involved wishes to do so... but I do have issues with a company FORCING such a change upon its consumers in the middle of an anime title's release. I'd like to see a commitment to continuing subtitled and VHS availability for those series _already on the market_ that still have upcoming episodes to be released, so we (as consumers) aren't required to have half a series on VHS and half on DVD.
Beware the CCR commerical! It's immediately addictive (online crack) and you'll never get the music out of your head once you hear it...
'neko wa kowai... rocket to sugoi... tsubababa!'
Oh wow... this is the most hilarious thing I've seen all week, sucka! That foo' Timothy got nothin' on the T'inator page!
It's NOT posting articles in 'Swedish Chef' or Pig Latin or whatever, which isn't funny... especially not the second time around. (If they wanted to get a snicker, they should have done one in '3733t hax0r sp33k' if anything.)
Although I understand it may be difficult to come up with something original on the humor level of the Onion or Segfault, it's not like the /. crew has to do this more than once a year... so far today, I'm very disappointed in the intelligence level of the /. editors. Who let 'Timothy' on the server without adult supervision?
There's a nice little html code available, so you can add the X-ray flare and geomagnetic storm monitor to your own website as well... check out some of the other interesting pages on the site, like the one with daily solar images of different types from spacecraft (SOHO) and ground observatories.
Along with the rise of the web and the popularization of the internet comes the broadening of careers that the majority of people consider within the scope of 'information technology' - its not all programmers and MIS anymore. In light of the sweeping changes that have occurred in only the past few years, are women instead seeking majors and emphases that are useful in IT but not part of the 'computer science' curricula of universities?
I personally know of quite a few female acquaintances whose interest in computers have shifted in such a manner, from the 'traditional' CS areas into other fields related to computing, especially graphic design and communications/media - where they fully intend to have a future in IT, and a career in computers... just not as coders or engineers, but as designers and content providers instead.
As an example of a change in what women percieve as more attractive options to CS, it certainly seems that there is a *very high* proportion of females in the area of 'webdesigning', especially in coming up with the most avant-garde and creative sites.
Basically, is it just a percieved problem that fewer females are becoming CS majors, or are they gravitating to other positions in the computing world instead?
What is the discerning Slashdotter to do?
It's subtitled: "VA Linux purchases Andover.net, corporate parent to Slashdot. Will the "news for nerds" site maintain its editorial independence?" and basically sees the development as being negative for the independence of Slashdot.
For anyone who is interested, a realplayer replay of the program should be available by tomorrow at http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnps02fm.cfm?MM=1&YY =2000&PrgID=5).
The numeral 6 corresponds to the Hebrew letter 'waw', typically rendered as 'w' in the Latin alphabet... so that WWW=666, the Beast whose number is six hundred three score and six.
And what clinches it is the following passage from Revelations 13:16/17... "and he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads; and that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."
Obviously, St. John was referring to the use of a password to get online and encrypted credit card information to purchase goods on the internet! ;D
What Article 29(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is saying is that the provisions of the Declaration (such as Article 19 on freedom of opinion and expression) can not be used as an excuse to violate the broader 'purposes and principles'... such as developing and implementing targeted and systematic ethnic hatred propaganda campaigns in order to cause conflicts or incitement to genocide.
Just as the defense "I was just following orders" doesn't apply in such situations, Article 29(3) ensures that "I was just exercising my rights in the Universal Declaration" can not be used as a justification for violating the rights of others.
The United Nations resolution that Mater_Tenebrarum is concerned with (General Assembly Resolution 3379 in 1975) which tied Zionism to racism in recommending that Member States take voluntary measures (such as sanctions) against Israel because of their actions during the occupation of Palestinian territories, was repealed in 1991 with General Assembly Resolution 46/86.
For those concerned about the US position on such proposals, at the Holocaust conference the US envoy said that freedom of speech issues would prevent the US from supporting restrictions against racist activity on the Internet, but that hate groups could be monitored for "planning destructive activity."
As for what the Expert Commission is actually discussing in February in regards to the internet, it's a three hour session (part of a three day seminar) on the remedies available to victims of acts of racism and incitement to racial hatred on the internet; technical problems linked to prosecution of acts of racism on the internet; and the legal and technical questions of the issue (such as defining the act, the perpetrator of the act, responsibility of the servers and providers, competence of prosecutors, international cooperation in the judicial aspects).
What the United Nations is concerned with is the systematic use of the internet to exacerbate conflicts, facilitate 'ethnic cleansing', and target migrants or refugees by stoking ethnic hatred and intolerance - not people randomly using 'hate speech' in a chatroom or on usenet, or even the typical idiotic webpage spewing 'white vs. black' ideas. In this regard, the internet is seen as just another mass media tool in the arsenal of those promoting such ideas, similar to radio, television, and the press (as was used in Rwanda where the horrific genocide was sparked by inflammatory radio broadcasts and newspapers). I spent most of 1997 as a senior intelligence operations noncommissioned officer in support of the NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, and I've seen firsthand the use of the internet in this manner by all sides in that situation (Serbian, Croatian, and Bosniac), and the misrepresentations and lies became so bad that the High Commissioner (of the international community) in Bosnia had to place restrictions on the news broadcasts and webpostings of each sides' press agencies, lest they renew the conflict. The same tactics were used when the NATO action againt Serbia was ongoing, when all sorts of anti-Serb and anti-Kosovar sites sprang up online. You can see similar sites regarding nearly any major dispute in the world today: try Kashmir, or the ongoing Ethiopia-Eritrea war. The question we need to address is where the line lies between legitimate representation of views and propaganda sparking and leading to criminal acts, outright conflict and genocide.
As for the foreseeable future, the international community isn't even at the point of coming up with agreed upon definitions concerning the issue, much less finalizing guidelines, and plans of action for effectively combating such speech online, and is nowhere near the paranoid view expressed elsewhere in the thread that the United Nations is coming up with international laws, treaties, conventions, restrictions, etc promoting censorship or banning free speech on the internet.
For more background and information on the Third World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance, check out their website at http://www.un.org/rights/racism/
By the way, this is my first post to slashdot after lurking for a year. :) Hi everyone!
SenshiNeko (representing the Republic of The Gambia in the Security Council at the National Model United Nations Conference this year)