Oddly enough, if you take the trouble to consult an almanac, you'll discover, perhaps much to your surprise, that most of the world is, quite literally, Unamerincan
Go figure.
On the other hand, if you consult a history book you'll find that above is just about as fine a traditional American sentiment as one could possibly devise.
Again, go figure.
Man, this whole patriotism thing turns out to be a bit more complicated than simply waving a flag and chanting jigoistic slogans, even in France.
Ah, how quickly we forget where the Statue of Liberty comes from, which way it faces, and *why?*
Oddly enough the American armies who "saved" France did. That's one of the reasons they were there in the first place, to honor a debt that was defaulted in fact and unrepayable in philosophy.
I live in upstate NY, just a couple blocks from the occasional local residence of a young French gentleman whom both Pershing and Patton are reputed to have payed homage to when first setting foot on French Soil.
LaFayette, we are here, and some of us haven't forgotten.
And don't forget the old saying, 60 million Frenchman can't be wrong. Hell, maybe when they became "Cheese eating surrender monkeys" it's simply because they knew something we didn't.
Go figure.
As for Mandrake. Good distro in its way. If the company deserves to live it just might pull it off. If it doesn't well, millions of Frenchman have died while singing La Marseillaise rather than surrender.
Did you know that proper protocol for handling a French flag is that once it's raised it is never taken down again until reduced to rags? Think about it.
Bingo! Give the man a prize. The best way to secure information from misappropriation across the net is to isolate it from the net.
In my businesses ( which are admitedly very small. I aknowledge there are other factors in larger firms) all core accounting information and trade secrets are stored on a PC with no net connection at all. If you need the data, you need to get physical access to the console.
This is how the NSA does it. Only they lock the computer *itself* in a vault. You need the data, you go to the vault, get locked in while you use the computer, and then get let out, with everyone who uses the machine carefully logged.
And does it work?
Hell no. The evidence is as near as the headlines of the papers. People cheat and steal. Even people you trust.
What a lot of security *really* does is limit the number of people you have to investigate after the material gets out.
Here's how it works. The new version of Office comes out, and it's perfectly backward compatable.
But it isn't *forward* compatible.
So all you have to do is get one company that a lot of other companies need to do business with in on the plot and get them to make the switch.
Your Office documents are perfectly readable by them, but everything they send YOU your older version can't read. So if you want to continue to do business with them you have to switch too.
It's a very effective way to force upgrades without giving any overt appearance that that's what you're doing.
They don't lock you out of your documents. They lock you out of everybody else's.
Indeed, it is the first duty of every scientist to show the other guy where he's full of crap. That is the essence of science. Finding the flaws.
Lord knows I've been shown to be full of crap often enough.
Richard Feynman was *famous* for being full of crap nearly all the time. It's that *nearly* that gets you. One of the great things about Richard is that he never, ever, self censored. He was willing be full of crap most of the time. It's an essential part of the process, but most people don't like to look "silly" so they hold back.
"Here's my idea."
"Here's where it's wrong."
"Oh, *THANK* you!"
That's the way it's supposed to work.
Commercial "science" almost always turns into a political issue of some sort. They're there to promote a concept. Not to find the truth.
Actually, yes, I would. I'm ready to retire my Compaq transportable 8088.
No, I'm not joking about either.
Besides, we're not talking about desktop cards. We're talking about cards that are already small and light enough to put a few of them in your shirt pocket and not even notice them.
But after I sold it wouldn't it cost me just as much to get another copy?:)
My books are all nearly mint. I've always been very, very careful about how I handle books. The D&D box has some nasty water damage it sustained when a pipe burst and it took me a few minutes to clear the shelf though.
Chainmail didn't come in the box. If you wanted it you had to purchase it seperately. Not that it mattered, while D&D was an extension to Chainmail originally they were seperate sets of rules intended for different game play.
Chainmail wasn't an RPG. It was a stright wargaming system for miniatures.
I've still got my originals of Chainmail and D&D.
I've got a copy of H.G. Wells "Little Wars" somewhere about the place too, but *that* is a reprint.
Ah, but what if all the corporations get is the value of the promotion in sponsorship? i.e., the recordings themselves are not viewed as a source of income, but sponsorship of them is *sold*, just as sponsorship of concerts is sold ( or sponsorship of racing car, arenas, etc.)for the value of the advertising?
So Pepsi sponsors my single. They cover the recording costs, and I agree to putting a "brought to you by Pepsi" label in the upper corner. Now we aren't talking about "power." We're transacting a simple business deal. A bit of private "product placement" as it were.
Now I sell the disks, or even *give them away,* not for profit, but as a *promotional item,* like free t-shirts or ball point pens, to promote my concerts.
Now, I'll put on a full show for you in your living room if you want. A thousand bucks plus traveling expenses. Invite all your buddys. Get 100 buddies to chip in ten bucks apiece and you're covered.
I make a good living. You get my recordings for little or nothing, and the question of "power" never comes up.
By the way, I'm noted for putting on a fun show. Call me if you're into acoustic folk oriented stuff.
This is called Planned Obsolesence. Repackage, give it new name that implies modernity (like "New whatever." God these guys are doing it crudely) and rely on costomer dissatisfaction with owning something "old" to drive sales.
Slashdot Mirror
Because they're nerds? I thought that was bloody obvious from the site's subtitle/motto.
Maybe it's just me then.
KFG
Your knee is twitching. I never said anything about Iraq. I spoke entirely in the general philosophical case, and meant it that way.
KFG
Finally, a guitar that can violate itself instead of waiting around for Pete Townshend to do it.
KFG
Oddly enough, if you take the trouble to consult an almanac, you'll discover, perhaps much to your surprise, that most of the world is, quite literally, Unamerincan
Go figure.
On the other hand, if you consult a history book you'll find that above is just about as fine a traditional American sentiment as one could possibly devise.
Again, go figure.
Man, this whole patriotism thing turns out to be a bit more complicated than simply waving a flag and chanting jigoistic slogans, even in France.
Who knew?
KFG
Yeah, damn that Frenchman for being a little shakey in the English translation dept.
I mean, who do they think they are, French?
KFG
Nonetheless, would you remind me once again how much Mandrake pays Linus and Redhat for IP licensing?
You don't suppose they got started in the first place by simply downloading other people's work for free, dicking it around a bit, and reselling it?
Them's the rules, and they knew it, and took advantage of it, when they entered the fray.
Next thing you know people will be accused of "stealing" Mandrake because they downloaded Debian instead. It's doofey.
KFG
Ah, how quickly we forget where the Statue of Liberty comes from, which way it faces, and *why?*
Oddly enough the American armies who "saved" France did. That's one of the reasons they were there in the first place, to honor a debt that was defaulted in fact and unrepayable in philosophy.
I live in upstate NY, just a couple blocks from the occasional local residence of a young French gentleman whom both Pershing and Patton are reputed to have payed homage to when first setting foot on French Soil.
LaFayette, we are here, and some of us haven't forgotten.
And don't forget the old saying, 60 million Frenchman can't be wrong. Hell, maybe when they became "Cheese eating surrender monkeys" it's simply because they knew something we didn't.
Go figure.
As for Mandrake. Good distro in its way. If the company deserves to live it just might pull it off. If it doesn't well, millions of Frenchman have died while singing La Marseillaise rather than surrender.
Did you know that proper protocol for handling a French flag is that once it's raised it is never taken down again until reduced to rags? Think about it.
KFG
All your base are belong to us.
Your logic fails.
KFG
Bingo! Give the man a prize. The best way to secure information from misappropriation across the net is to isolate it from the net.
In my businesses ( which are admitedly very small. I aknowledge there are other factors in larger firms) all core accounting information and trade secrets are stored on a PC with no net connection at all. If you need the data, you need to get physical access to the console.
This is how the NSA does it. Only they lock the computer *itself* in a vault. You need the data, you go to the vault, get locked in while you use the computer, and then get let out, with everyone who uses the machine carefully logged.
And does it work?
Hell no. The evidence is as near as the headlines of the papers. People cheat and steal. Even people you trust.
What a lot of security *really* does is limit the number of people you have to investigate after the material gets out.
KFG
Here's how it works. The new version of Office comes out, and it's perfectly backward compatable.
But it isn't *forward* compatible.
So all you have to do is get one company that a lot of other companies need to do business with in on the plot and get them to make the switch.
Your Office documents are perfectly readable by them, but everything they send YOU your older version can't read. So if you want to continue to do business with them you have to switch too.
It's a very effective way to force upgrades without giving any overt appearance that that's what you're doing.
They don't lock you out of your documents. They lock you out of everybody else's.
KFG
If you can't read or spell of what use is previewing?
KFG
Indeed, it is the first duty of every scientist to show the other guy where he's full of crap. That is the essence of science. Finding the flaws.
Lord knows I've been shown to be full of crap often enough.
Richard Feynman was *famous* for being full of crap nearly all the time. It's that *nearly* that gets you. One of the great things about Richard is that he never, ever, self censored. He was willing be full of crap most of the time. It's an essential part of the process, but most people don't like to look "silly" so they hold back.
"Here's my idea."
"Here's where it's wrong."
"Oh, *THANK* you!"
That's the way it's supposed to work.
Commercial "science" almost always turns into a political issue of some sort. They're there to promote a concept. Not to find the truth.
It stinks.
KFG
But none of the developers could figure out why you'd need both.
KFG
I just want to know how many aardvarks and Tasmanian Devils that works out to be.
KFG
I don't mean the minidisk(tm). I mean the smaller CD size that can be put into the smaller recess in a standard CD drive.
Perhaps the digital "Business Card" will take over this function
KFG
I mean, a Pulse Code Modulated Central Intelligence Agency would just be one step futher toward a police state then is acceptable by anyone.
KFG
I can't imagine a program ever matching a really, really good DM. Ever. No matter how customizable it is.
A good DM is a improvisational performer and a good one creates magic.
A computer will only be able to match a DM when it can also match Joseph Conrad as an author and Robin Williams as an improviser.
KFG
Actually, yes, I would. I'm ready to retire my Compaq transportable 8088.
No, I'm not joking about either.
Besides, we're not talking about desktop cards. We're talking about cards that are already small and light enough to put a few of them in your shirt pocket and not even notice them.
KFG
But after I sold it wouldn't it cost me just as much to get another copy? :)
My books are all nearly mint. I've always been very, very careful about how I handle books. The D&D box has some nasty water damage it sustained when a pipe burst and it took me a few minutes to clear the shelf though.
KFG
Did anybody bother to tell the archers that? :)
Even bullets don't usually kill. The wounded almost always outnumber the dead.
That doesn't mean that isn't their purpose. It's only a question of how effective they are about managing the job.
And Robin Hood had the patent on those killer arrows nearly a century ago. Don't blame it on Peter Jackson, he's just following the formula.
Six shooters not only killed a bad guy every time they went off, they never needed reloading either.
KFG
Chainmail didn't come in the box. If you wanted it you had to purchase it seperately. Not that it mattered, while D&D was an extension to Chainmail originally they were seperate sets of rules intended for different game play.
Chainmail wasn't an RPG. It was a stright wargaming system for miniatures.
I've still got my originals of Chainmail and D&D.
I've got a copy of H.G. Wells "Little Wars" somewhere about the place too, but *that* is a reprint.
KFG
"However, much more work, refinement, and especially regulation and *simplification* is necessary before the game is managable."
Well, they sure blew THAT one, didn't they?
KFG
Beautiful. Abso'fuckin'lutely beautiful.
You left out one bit though. At least in the United States the consumer takes it up the backside. So we've got that going for us at least.
KFG
Ah, but what if all the corporations get is the value of the promotion in sponsorship? i.e., the recordings themselves are not viewed as a source of income, but sponsorship of them is *sold*, just as sponsorship of concerts is sold ( or sponsorship of racing car, arenas, etc.)for the value of the advertising?
So Pepsi sponsors my single. They cover the recording costs, and I agree to putting a "brought to you by Pepsi" label in the upper corner. Now we aren't talking about "power." We're transacting a simple business deal. A bit of private "product placement" as it were.
Now I sell the disks, or even *give them away,* not for profit, but as a *promotional item,* like free t-shirts or ball point pens, to promote my concerts.
Now, I'll put on a full show for you in your living room if you want. A thousand bucks plus traveling expenses. Invite all your buddys. Get 100 buddies to chip in ten bucks apiece and you're covered.
I make a good living. You get my recordings for little or nothing, and the question of "power" never comes up.
By the way, I'm noted for putting on a fun show. Call me if you're into acoustic folk oriented stuff.
KFG
This is called Planned Obsolesence. Repackage, give it new name that implies modernity (like "New whatever." God these guys are doing it crudely) and rely on costomer dissatisfaction with owning something "old" to drive sales.
Can you say "tailfins" and "Venti-ports"?
I knew you could.
KFG