george bush issues george bush is an idiot george bush is stupid george bush is the antichrist george bush is evil george bush is gay george bush is a moron george bush is my homeboy george bush is the anti christ george bush is a monkey
All I want to know is where PETA stands on this issue. We all know that PETA is only concerned with the plight of non-humans, but what about non-humans with human (compatible) parts? Can I eat a hamburger without getting a lecture if the cow's pancreas is made up of human cells?
Yay for science! And more importantly, yay for hamburgers!
Yeah, what happens when the burglar comes into your house and you forget to put on your gun ring? I dunno, maybe you die. But maybe there is no burglar. And not in a/no spoon/ kinda way. I just don't think you're actually going to be in a situation where a robber breaks into your house and you get to your your prize boom stick. Yes, eduacation is key. And yes, responsible parents need to accept the liabilities associated with gun ownership. But whomever convinced these people that the evil people are going to break into their houses at night, and without that gun under the pillow, everybody's gonna die--I just think you NRA folks needs to rethink the handgun burglar protection plan. I'm willing to bet it contributes to more accidental deaths than protection related deaths.
I guess what I'm saying is that you might wanna weigh the risk of killing the people you love [accidently] over possibily protecting youself.
I'm lazy. Most people are. I also happen to be remarkably wealthy with regard to my lack of monetary funds. However, email is free and, as it would happen, relatively disconnected from anything likely to threaten my aformentioned laziness. My proposal? Give me an email address, and possibily even a body of inflamatory and or intellectually clever text, with which I will send, nay, toss, at the offending party. There are uncountable numbers of me--note our switch to plural--who can convince the said party that we are indeed annoying enough to deal with properly.
--shrug--
We seem to be laying the groundwork for a master race of mice... but why? Maybe there's more to Hitchhiker's than we thought...
Ok, who was the dumbass who decided the above was insightful? I'm just a much a fan of The Guide as the next guy, but lets have a quick reality check: how does the above comment shed any kind of actual insight on the above article?
I swear, its as if the moderaters are getting as bad as the glorified article headers...
Am I saying the world is going to be taken over by hyperintelligent glowing super mice that shoot insulin from the ears on their backs?
Of course not!
I'm saying the pan-galactic beings from another dimension who run this planet are getting ready for war, and they are using the Earth as a training facility.
(If you haven't read the hitchhickers guide to the galaxy let me first say don't panic! Secondly, go read it.)
Hey! Don't go screaming bloody murder every time a couple of mega-corps get to know each other in the biblicial sense. Just buy some of the respective companies' stock. That's what I did. Besides, it's a widely known fact that major corperations are slowly taking over.. Didn't you read Snow Crash?
WOW, you actually almost kinda slightly hinted at maybe considering heading toward what could possibly be construed as not quite but almost that which resides in the area of what some might call a potentially thought provoking question! I'm really impressed Katz. Someone get this man a gold star!
Roblimo, please remember the strength you hold in your position on slashdot. Lots of people read this site. As best I can tell, the reason these people read this site en mass is because we generally agree on and aprove of the particuliar biased slashdot puts on the news. This seems reasonable, does it not? When I am in the mood for news for nerds, I come to slashdot. When I want to hear about celebrities, well, I'm sure there are sites for such an interest. The problem I have noticed recently is that I'm getting less and less news for nerds coming showing up on slashdot. And ultimately, when slashdot no longer represents a news filter that corresponds with my interests, I stop reading it.
Consequently, I am not going to stop reading slashdot because someone posted a story about the death of some celebrity I had never heard of. However, unless you can show me otherwise, I do not believe this story should have appeared on slashdot.
Ok, I know this is slightly off topic, but Signal 11, you need to let your comment to speak for itself. Your comment wasn't even moderated down yet, and yet you have already decided that you will be pegged a troll. Rob has been working his ass off to make sure comments are rated with fairness, and I think he's done a pretty good job. Lets say someone drops your comment by a point. You have all the other moderators who could push it back up, as well as metamoderators who would remove the privilages from the offending moderator. So next time, instead of spending time begging for moderators to not moderate your comment down, put the time back into your initial comment.
But lets flesh out the issue. Lets say the world got together and decided software piracy should end today. Nevermind the implimentation and enforcement, let us just assume the world went along with it. Also, for the sake of my argument, let us assume that of the 40% of software users who are engaging in software piracy, only 15% would actually buy a given product if piracy were no longer possible.
Now, in a world with no piracy, one has four options if one is looking to use a computer to do an arbitrary task: 1) buy software to complete the task 2) write the software one's self 3) find open sourced or free software 4) find an alternative to using a computer
So what do you think might happen to the software industry? Would the once pirates sart buying expensive software? If you accpeted my assumption about software pirates purchasing software if piracy ended, then we already know the answer; 25% of the world's consumers of software would be left with options 2, 3, and 4. I believe it is safe to say options 2 and 4 are impractical in most cases, but maybe a fifth of our remaining 25% of software users would explore such options, leaving 20% of all software users with only option 3.
Ok. To recap:
Piracy has ended
75% of people buy software
5% of people write there own software or stopped using computers
20% of people are now exploring the option of free/opensourced software
Between you and me, I believe such a scenario would lead to a bolstering in opensourced software. The increase in use of such software might even be enough to create a massive cascading effect, whereby software buyers would begin to flock to the costless software option. Those software publishers who cheered when piracy was eliminated weep quietly as they watch their markets dwindle.
Ok then, which industry do you prefer? Do you prefer a software industry with piracy and a large software market, or an industry characterized by opensourced and free software? Which might software publishers prefer?
So yes, software piracy is illegal. And no amount of rationalization will change that fact. But at least consider what I have said.
It's rather simple. We need to get this material on CNN, and we need to get it there now. Right now we are preaching to the preachers; and sure, we are helping out our community. Reading letters from geeks/outsiders who have made it beyond Hellmouth give us the strength to make it through the day. I'm a senior now. It amazes me that I'll be graduating sometime in June; the kind of pain I felt throughout elementary, middle, and most of high school would have lead me to believe I'd have never made it. But here I am. And I couldn't have done it without my fellow geeks/outsiders and the online community. I am getting increasingly concerned for other geeks/outsiders though. Ever since the killings there's been a ridiculous backlash from those who don't understand what its like to be a geek or an outsider. What is worse, they [those who fear and misunderstand geeks/outsiders] don't have a clue what is going on with us. And rather than asking us what is wrong, they are just making gross assumptions about how to "help" us. And I know for a fact that my principal or my parents, or the general public for that matter, will never know of the things we say here on/. That is exactly why this [the Hellmouth article, et. al.] kind of material needs to be broadcast out to the general public. Ignorance is recursive; if we don't break the loop soon we're gonna have one very ugly crash.
Well, there's a section on/. for book reviews, a section for open community questions ("ask slashdot"). So why doesn't/. have an editorial section? I think it might work rather well. There would be the in-house editorialists (John Katz et. al.). And then occasionally there could be a guest editorialist. There could be a slashbox for editorials and of course the editorials could be disabled by those adverse to the idea. I dunno, its just a thought.
That's exactly why /. needs an editorial section.
on
Assorted Katz Hype
·
· Score: 1
Augie, you hit the nail on the head, "It's a column; it's an opinion piece; it's not a news article. He's an editorialist and, on occasion, a free-thinker." Well, there's a section on/. for book reviews, a section for open community questions ("ask slashdot"). So why doesn't/. have an editorial section? I think it might work rather well. There would be the in-house editorialists (John Katz et. al.). And then occasionally there could be a guest editorialist. There could be a slashbox for editorials and of course the editorials could be disabled by those adverse to the idea. I dunno, its just a thought.
If you ever find out, give me a call. I'd love to own a piece of this site (not to mention share in all the profit it could conceivably generate). Its already my favorite site and my front page. Though I wonder if going public would damage the site in the end.
i dunno if you've ever tried it, but its not very exciting. i'm sick of windows, and i figured it was time to learn linux, so i built a machine out of some spare parts lying around the house, hooked it up to my pathetic little lan, and started downloading. and if you're reading this and you know of a way of salvaging a redhat ftp install that got disconnected, i'd appreciate it.
Slashdot Mirror
"democrats are " losers, stupid, evil, smarter, idiots, sore losers, dumb, dead, socalists, communists.
"republicans are " evil, stupid, idiots, racist, dumb nazis, like condoms, better, smarter than democracts, smarter
Wow, republicans are like condoms. Who knew?
--Jordan
Type "george bush is" into the search field.
I think you'll enjoy the results:
george bush issues
george bush is an idiot
george bush is stupid
george bush is the antichrist
george bush is evil
george bush is gay
george bush is a moron
george bush is my homeboy
george bush is the anti christ
george bush is a monkey
"jesus is" and "google is" are pretty funny too.
--Jordan
All I want to know is where PETA stands on this issue. We all know that PETA is only concerned with the plight of non-humans, but what about non-humans with human (compatible) parts? Can I eat a hamburger without getting a lecture if the cow's pancreas is made up of human cells?
Yay for science! And more importantly, yay for hamburgers!
And of course, the backup site is down, so everybody head over to the backup-backup site
Yeah, what happens when the burglar comes into your house and you forget to put on your gun ring? I dunno, maybe you die. But maybe there is no burglar. And not in a /no spoon/ kinda way. I just don't think you're actually going to be in a situation where a robber breaks into your house and you get to your your prize boom stick. Yes, eduacation is key. And yes, responsible parents need to accept the liabilities associated with gun ownership. But whomever convinced these people that the evil people are going to break into their houses at night, and without that gun under the pillow, everybody's gonna die--I just think you NRA folks needs to rethink the handgun burglar protection plan. I'm willing to bet it contributes to more accidental deaths than protection related deaths.
I guess what I'm saying is that you might wanna weigh the risk of killing the people you love [accidently] over possibily protecting youself.
Don't Panic! but with the Don't crossed out.
I'm lazy. Most people are. I also happen to be remarkably wealthy with regard to my lack of monetary funds. However, email is free and, as it would happen, relatively disconnected from anything likely to threaten my aformentioned laziness. My proposal? Give me an email address, and possibily even a body of inflamatory and or intellectually clever text, with which I will send, nay, toss, at the offending party. There are uncountable numbers of me--note our switch to plural--who can convince the said party that we are indeed annoying enough to deal with properly. --shrug--
> What next, Bill Gate's Momma jokes?
Oh yeah, well Bill Gate's Momma is so fat...
uh, I mean Beowulf!!!!!! W000 Yeah!
We seem to be laying the groundwork for a master race of mice... but why? Maybe there's more to Hitchhiker's than we thought...
Ok, who was the dumbass who decided the above was insightful? I'm just a much a fan of The Guide as the next guy, but lets have a quick reality check: how does the above comment shed any kind of actual insight on the above article?
I swear, its as if the moderaters are getting as bad as the glorified article headers...
Lets look at the facts folks:
We've made them bigger.
We've made them smarter.
We've made them glow.
We've cured their diabetes.
We've even armed them with ears on their back!
Am I saying the world is going to be taken over by hyperintelligent glowing super mice that shoot insulin from the ears on their backs?
Of course not!
I'm saying the pan-galactic beings from another dimension who run this planet are getting ready for war, and they are using the Earth as a training facility.
(If you haven't read the hitchhickers guide to the galaxy let me first say don't panic! Secondly, go read it.)
One good thing about Battlefield Earth is that John Katz never wrote a pointless piece about..
:)
oh wait, nevermind.
Hey! Don't go screaming bloody murder every time a couple of mega-corps get to know each other in the biblicial sense. Just buy some of the respective companies' stock. That's what I did. Besides, it's a widely known fact that major corperations are slowly taking over.. Didn't you read Snow Crash?
doesn't that raise certain ultimate questions?
WOW, you actually almost kinda slightly hinted at maybe considering heading toward what could possibly be construed as not quite but almost that which resides in the area of what some might call a potentially thought provoking question! I'm really impressed Katz. Someone get this man a gold star!
In other news, Hell is experiencing a cold front.
Roblimo, please remember the strength you hold in your position on slashdot. Lots of people read this site. As best I can tell, the reason these people read this site en mass is because we generally agree on and aprove of the particuliar biased slashdot puts on the news. This seems reasonable, does it not? When I am in the mood for news for nerds, I come to slashdot. When I want to hear about celebrities, well, I'm sure there are sites for such an interest. The problem I have noticed recently is that I'm getting less and less news for nerds coming showing up on slashdot. And ultimately, when slashdot no longer represents a news filter that corresponds with my interests, I stop reading it.
Consequently, I am not going to stop reading slashdot because someone posted a story about the death of some celebrity I had never heard of. However, unless you can show me otherwise, I do not believe this story should have appeared on slashdot.
--Yek401
Administrative Contact: (310) 664-8100 Voice
one word: dialpad
the crypt (a la cryptonomicon)?
Ok, I know this is slightly off topic, but Signal 11, you need to let your comment to speak for itself. Your comment wasn't even moderated down yet, and yet you have already decided that you will be pegged a troll. Rob has been working his ass off to make sure comments are rated with fairness, and I think he's done a pretty good job. Lets say someone drops your comment by a point. You have all the other moderators who could push it back up, as well as metamoderators who would remove the privilages from the offending moderator. So next time, instead of spending time begging for moderators to not moderate your comment down, put the time back into your initial comment.
But lets flesh out the issue. Lets say the world got together and decided software piracy should end today. Nevermind the implimentation and enforcement, let us just assume the world went along with it. Also, for the sake of my argument, let us assume that of the 40% of software users who are engaging in software piracy, only 15% would actually buy a given product if piracy were no longer possible.
Now, in a world with no piracy, one has four options if one is looking to use a computer to do an arbitrary task:
1) buy software to complete the task
2) write the software one's self
3) find open sourced or free software
4) find an alternative to using a computer
So what do you think might happen to the software industry? Would the once pirates sart buying expensive software? If you accpeted my assumption about software pirates purchasing software if piracy ended, then we already know the answer; 25% of the world's consumers of software would be left with options 2, 3, and 4. I believe it is safe to say options 2 and 4 are impractical in most cases, but maybe a fifth of our remaining 25% of software users would explore such options, leaving 20% of all software users with only option 3.
Ok. To recap:
Piracy has ended
75% of people buy software
5% of people write there own software or stopped using computers
20% of people are now exploring the option of free/opensourced software
Between you and me, I believe such a scenario would lead to a bolstering in opensourced software. The increase in use of such software might even be enough to create a massive cascading effect, whereby software buyers would begin to flock to the costless software option. Those software publishers who cheered when piracy was eliminated weep quietly as they watch their markets dwindle.
Ok then, which industry do you prefer? Do you prefer a software industry with piracy and a large software market, or an industry characterized by opensourced and free software? Which might software publishers prefer?
So yes, software piracy is illegal. And no amount of rationalization will change that fact. But at least consider what I have said.
-Yek401
It's rather simple. We need to get this material on CNN, and we need to get it there now. Right now we are preaching to the preachers; and sure, we are helping out our community. Reading letters from geeks/outsiders who have made it beyond Hellmouth give us the strength to make it through the day. I'm a senior now. It amazes me that I'll be graduating sometime in June; the kind of pain I felt throughout elementary, middle, and most of high school would have lead me to believe I'd have never made it. But here I am. And I couldn't have done it without my fellow geeks/outsiders and the online community. I am getting increasingly concerned for other geeks/outsiders though. Ever since the killings there's been a ridiculous backlash from those who don't understand what its like to be a geek or an outsider. What is worse, they [those who fear and misunderstand geeks/outsiders] don't have a clue what is going on with us. And rather than asking us what is wrong, they are just making gross assumptions about how to "help" us. And I know for a fact that my principal or my parents, or the general public for that matter, will never know of the things we say here on /. That is exactly why this [the Hellmouth article, et. al.] kind of material needs to be broadcast out to the general public. Ignorance is recursive; if we don't break the loop soon we're gonna have one very ugly crash.
Well, there's a section on /. for book reviews, a section for open community questions ("ask slashdot"). /. have an editorial section? I think it might work rather well. There would be the in-house editorialists (John Katz et. al.). And then occasionally there could be a guest editorialist.
So why doesn't
There could be a slashbox for editorials and of course the editorials could be disabled by those adverse to the idea.
I dunno, its just a thought.
Augie, you hit the nail on the head, "It's a column; it's an opinion piece; it's not a news article. He's an editorialist and, on occasion, a free-thinker." /. for book reviews, a section for open community questions ("ask slashdot"). /. have an editorial section? I think it might work rather well. There would be the in-house editorialists (John Katz et. al.). And then occasionally there could be a guest editorialist.
Well, there's a section on
So why doesn't
There could be a slashbox for editorials and of course the editorials could be disabled by those adverse to the idea.
I dunno, its just a thought.
Yeah, I noticed that too. /. just gets better and better.
Well, I get the black box and I'm on a Win98 machine with Communicator 4.5
Anybody not see the black box?
If you ever find out, give me a call. I'd love to own a piece of this site (not to mention share in all the profit it could conceivably generate).
Its already my favorite site and my front page.
Though I wonder if going public would damage the site in the end.
i dunno if you've ever tried it, but its not very exciting. i'm sick of windows, and i figured it was time to learn linux, so i built a machine out of some spare parts lying around the house, hooked it up to my pathetic little lan, and started downloading. and if you're reading this and you know of a way of salvaging a redhat ftp install that got disconnected, i'd appreciate it.