"...and stopping power nothin beats a.357 Magnum S&W."
I hear that. I was in Vegas once, and my buddies and I stopped at a gun range. Me, being the wuss of the group, got a.22 ruger (spelling?). Ammo for me for the whole day was something on the order of $5. Matt got a.357, and when he fired it, I was standing about ten feet behind him. I could still feel my belt buckle rattle.
Oh right, the topic of the thread..
I saw The One on Friday night, and I thought it was a really neat concept, just poorly executed. Did the numbers on all the gauges really need to be in that wierd pseudo-Kanji font?
The thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was the amount of violence in the film. Yeah, it was an action movie, and starring Jet Li nonetheless. But most of the fight scenes were brutal, rather than well-choreographed. And almost all the violence was directed at cops.
The Highlander ripoff dialogue at the end made me cringe. And that white multiverse agent was probably the worst actor I've ever seen outside Will Shatner.
As much as anything under the heading of "biological warfare" is scary, the idea of getting anthrax doesn't send me into a fit of panic.
I found a bunch of interesting and reassuring information on Heathlinkusa.com.
The fact is, there exists both a cure for anthrax and even a vaccine. There's an article on ABCNews that explains how anthrax works, and that if caught early enough, it can be treated with penicillin.
My theory is that the anthrax infections we've been reading about are not the responsibility of terrorists, but just some nutcase somewhere in the country who is trying to scare the hell out of everyone, although I cannot fathom why.
"Numerous editorials in todays NY Post have advocated ignoring the law and using racist, mob logic to correct the injustice of yesterday's attack. These frothing calls to action are not only irresponsible, they are barbarous."
As a New Yorker, I have the priviledge of seeing the Post every so often next to more intelligent, reputable publications, and what you should realize is that this is par for the course. The Post pretty much always has a dumb, reactionary comment to make. On a scale of journalistic integrity, they're only slightly above tabloids in that they sensationalize real events, instead of fake ones.
Re:Try this again, less troll-full, this time.
on
Our New Pearl Harbor
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· Score: 2
This is tasteless. JonKatz, the facts stand on their own face. Every one of us is capable of reacting to this without your help. Every one of us is capable of drawing conclusions without you leading us to them.
You must be new, so let me clue you in: this is called a "discussion forum." The idea is that, even when we all think the same thing, we share ideas. If you go back and read the Columbine threads you might catch the gist of it.
If you're still feeling self-righteous about posting that idiotic message (moderators: this one is for you, too) go find a local hospital and look for someone who seems upset. Ask him whats wrong, and when he starts to tell you, tell him to shut the fuck up because his feelings aren't really valid, and everyone else feels the same way.
Jon: my dad was in DC today. i spent most of the morning hitting redial to try and get his cell phone. eventually, i got through, and he's fine (renting a car to drive back to new york, of all places). my heart goes out to you.
I only wish more people would stand in traffic and get removed from the gene pool.
Wow. That's pretty harsh.
I live in Chicago, and I have to say that, for a large city, people are not directly rude or obnoxious, but they certainly are by omission. They choose not to pay attention to people standing around them, they stop their cars to double park on busy streets, they walk three abreast at a snail's pace on a busy sidewalk. They do any number if inane little things that make one want to shoot them.
Chicago is a pretty busy city. If these people you're referring to tried to take it all in, they'd end up standing on a corner somewhere drooling for hours at a time. That they ignore their surroundings and can concentrate on the task at hand -- talking to a client on the phone, going to a meeting, fantasizing about Angelina Jolie -- is evidence that they're able to actually focus on something. Why is that a problem?
Except walking slow and blocking the entire sidewalk. I'm from New York, and I know just what you mean. I !@#*ing hate that.
Couldn't Bush just trade that EP-3 with China for Jon Katz? I'm sure the international community would approve that move. Send him in a work camp!
For anyone who didn't quite catch that, what SpanishInquisition (e-mail him at sikdude@yahoo.com) just said was that we should send a Jew to a labor camp for speaking his mind.
If the hardware is so standard, and Indrema is selling below cost for the sum of the parts, why shouldn't I just buy it and use it as a windows gaming rig? Or a web server? Or mp3 jukebox? The list of possibilities is pretty endless.
It seems like we're all trying to find "the problem with..." this box and business plan. If there is a fault, it looks like it might be the ease with which users (by that I mean mostly slashdot readers) can convert it into a desktop PC.
Is this a slippery-slope kind of issue?
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Clever Girl Bess
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· Score: 2
In the past, I've advocated education as an alternative to censoring software. I always meant that we needed to educate kids on how to use the net responsibly, but now it seems that our government is in dire need of that education.
I have to wonder, is the DOD's purchase of this data the kind of thing that leads to targeting specific kids? I usually don't buy into the slippery slope argument, but it isn't inconceivable that N2H2 is lying about how specific the data being collected is.
On a related topic, does the Freedom of Information Act require the DOD to make publicly available the data that they've bought?
The Sony DVD player you chose has a built in Dolby Digital decoder, which is cool, but not necessary if the reciever you pick has a DD decoder in it. Save $50 and get the DVPS360.
I bought the DVPS560D for my parents, whose Bose audio system is only Dolby Pro Logic. They are thoroughly pleased with the DVD player. My dad says it makes his 17-year-old 27" NEC television look like its brand new.
Hogwash.
I do not consider school to be part of my education -- Mark Twain.
I think he said something more in line with "I never let my schooling interfere with my education."
Anyway, school is a pretty important part of education. I was an outcast myself in school, and it taught me to appreciate the things that were really important. That is, not tailoring myself to make others happy, but to conduct myself in a way that made me happy (I was a dirty little punk rocker in HS =).
Re:Geeks need to make the effort
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Gifts For Geeks
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· Score: 2
Of course it isn't acceptable to be an asshole for the rest of the year, but at Christmas everyone has the chance to get together and celebrate the things that make us human. To avoid this is to admit that something is seriously lacking in your life.
Something lacking in my life?! I should call my Rabbi and ask him what it is.
The word "initiative" means something different in congress. Gore's statement could pretty accurately be paraphrased to "I pushed bills that created the internet." The initiative here is a collection of bills, subsidies, grants, and so on. Did Gore exaggerate? Of course. He's running for President, and Thats Politics (TM). Was it right to stretch the truth? Nope. Did he lie? No.
If anyone can find a record of bills he sponsored around that time, it would probably clear this up pretty quickly.
Fanning has written a really excellent piece here, and hopefully it will not fall on deaf ears. The only flaw in the writing is the following:
When Napster is able to implement a business model, there will be other benefits for artists as well, including payments to rightsholders.
This is vague, at best. At worst, its a good reason for Napster to be shut down until the business model is a reality.
What kind of business model could be implemented here? Royalty payment to the copyright owner for each instance of a song being downloaded? Ambiguous filenames could be a big problem there. What if the file is the song name, and happens to be the same as a song by another artist? Who gets paid?
The big losers are apt to be DOD and the Amateur Radio community. DOD lobbiests will not have enough clout to protect the relatively vast amount of bandwidth that they have compaired with the communications lobbiests. Too bad, who needs militiary communications anyway right?
The DOD doesn't have lobbyists. Lobbyists are hired by political action commitees. DOD staff don't have to make campaign contributions to talk to the president.
Finally a question. When these 'bandwidth' are auctioned, how long is the 'ownership' period? If it isn't time-limited, then the bandwidth is essentially infinitely valuable and we've been screwed once again by lobbiests and the technical morons in Washington.
The purpose of the auction isn't actually a sale, its a lease. I think the duration is something like twenty years.
I for one sure as *hell* don't want open-source air traffic control software. How are you going to test it? Not at *my* airport!!!
Open source does not mean that any code submitted gets added. I, for one, would be pleased to know that thousands of talented programmers around the world could review code responsible for the safety of so many travelers. Isn't this exactly what we're all demanding for Carnivore?
IANAL, but wouldn't lawyer-client privilege rules come into play here? Your mom can't divulge legal documents prepared for another party without their consent, can she?
If that example ever occured, the older will could be used as evidence to have the new will thrown out. The old will wouldn't be any more valid than the new one, having not been executed, but New York law says that children are the first to inherit (assuming no living spouse).
If you send someone an email telling them you're going to kill them and you're put up on murder charges six months later, what makes it any less admissable then?
This example assumes so many things its ludicrous. Threatening to kill someone is a crime. The statue could easily include language that makes death threats exempt.
As for the "delete" key, anyone who works in sensitive information knows how to fully delete something.
Think so? My parents are lawyers. They work with sensitive information all the time, but every time I use one of their PCs I find the recycle bin containing hundreds of files they thought they deleted.
For argument's sake, lets say my mom writes a will for one of her clients. A week later, the client calls, prior to execution of the will (which is essentially making it legally binding) and says "I found another lawyer, you're fired, buh-bye." She would likely shred any existing paper copies and "delete" the document from the computer. A year later, the client dies with a will that excludes his children from inheriting anything. Should the children be able to get a copy of the will from the recycling bin on my mom's PC with which to contest the new will, claiming undue influence or something?
Neat. I would have expected to see the Ivys cave in order to grease the palms and wallets of record company executives.
The other side of the issue is that Napster really does eat bandwidth, and that can be really irritating if you're one of the few who does not use it. At my school, Resnet (residential network; the branch of academic computing that gives people net access in dorm rooms) limited all Napster traffic to just 5 megabit up/down combined. My quake 3 ping times dropped by a third of a second after that.
"Here, there are people linking to matterial that, while it is technical and good hearted in it's nature and motives (okay, so not entirely), it is, like it or not, illegal material. Just as links to kitty porn and maps that show where hemp is being grown is. And standing out in the middle of the street naked is illegal to. The nudity thing is covered by other laws, but the DMCA was passes to put certain limits on what can legally be done by internet users, limits primarily desigined to uphold copyrights in the digital scheme of things. "
Ummm.. what? For starters, you probably mean "kiddie porn," not "kitty." From the prior sentence, it sounds like you're advocating it as "good hearted material." Is this really what you meant to post? And, for the sake of the reader, could you, use fewer, commas? An emphasis on a word in speech does not translate to a comma in text.
"1) The people are the government in the US, where majority rules. (Lobbying doesn't do sh!t, btw, I don't care what you hippies say.)
2) The internet is a form of a public utility, grown in the mysterious space where ownership is shared among the government and the telecommunictaions industry. Because the wires are laid over government land, the government has regulatory final say over everything that goes on over that network. And while first ammendment rights are on loan to a good deal of these utilities, the government reserves the right to impose restrictions of your rights in this area. This is what makes the DMCA possible.
3) Linking to illegal material makes you a criminal, at least in an accessorary way. Sorta like being the guy who hires a hitman to take out your enemy, but a much with less at stake.
"
1) Well. My dad is a lobbyist, and laws are on the books here in New York state that he wrote. On your statement that lobbyists do not have an impact, I disagree. Good or bad, lobbyists really do make a difference. But what was the hippie comment about?
2) The net was not "grown in blah blah telco and government." I believe the Internet was originally called ARPAnet, as in Advanced Research Projects Agency. As I recall, it was designed to be a communications network that could survive a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. It was mostly universities at first, not telecom companies at all. I don't think I need to go any farther with the history lesson; go search google if you need more. The point is that ignorance is what makes the DCMA possible. Legislators getting advice from ill-informed advisors and less-than-accurate news outlets. That, combined with a desire to make Joe Voter happy and get reelected is what makes bad legislation get passed. Don't believe me? Check out gun control laws in America. Its a mess.
3) I think a better analogy might be the following:
You know that a guy in the alley is making fake IDs, and you point at the alley to passerbys and say "fake IDs in there." Sort of.
I don't see any need to quote your last paragraph. I didn't really understand what you meant, and I'm not sure how to address your.. umm... points.
This is stupid. The parent got modded up for a stupid, totally vapid post, whereas the next guy got modded down on a funny post simply for posting as an AC.
Slashdot Mirror
I know this is offtopic, but I'm tired of reading this crap.
You, sir, need to find a way to separate the actor from the character. Isn't it clear at this point that Wes != Wil?
Bye bye, karma.
I hear that. I was in Vegas once, and my buddies and I stopped at a gun range. Me, being the wuss of the group, got a
Oh right, the topic of the thread..
I saw The One on Friday night, and I thought it was a really neat concept, just poorly executed. Did the numbers on all the gauges really need to be in that wierd pseudo-Kanji font?
The thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was the amount of violence in the film. Yeah, it was an action movie, and starring Jet Li nonetheless. But most of the fight scenes were brutal, rather than well-choreographed. And almost all the violence was directed at cops.
The Highlander ripoff dialogue at the end made me cringe. And that white multiverse agent was probably the worst actor I've ever seen outside Will Shatner.
I found a bunch of interesting and reassuring information on Heathlinkusa.com.
The fact is, there exists both a cure for anthrax and even a vaccine. There's an article on ABCNews that explains how anthrax works, and that if caught early enough, it can be treated with penicillin.
My theory is that the anthrax infections we've been reading about are not the responsibility of terrorists, but just some nutcase somewhere in the country who is trying to scare the hell out of everyone, although I cannot fathom why.
Looks like science can be profitable and fun after all.
Does anyone know where the article mentioned in the story actually is? I have the October 2001 issue of Wired, and page 170 is music reviews.
As a New Yorker, I have the priviledge of seeing the Post every so often next to more intelligent, reputable publications, and what you should realize is that this is par for the course. The Post pretty much always has a dumb, reactionary comment to make. On a scale of journalistic integrity, they're only slightly above tabloids in that they sensationalize real events, instead of fake ones.
You must be new, so let me clue you in: this is called a "discussion forum." The idea is that, even when we all think the same thing, we share ideas. If you go back and read the Columbine threads you might catch the gist of it.
If you're still feeling self-righteous about posting that idiotic message (moderators: this one is for you, too) go find a local hospital and look for someone who seems upset. Ask him whats wrong, and when he starts to tell you, tell him to shut the fuck up because his feelings aren't really valid, and everyone else feels the same way.
Jon: my dad was in DC today. i spent most of the morning hitting redial to try and get his cell phone. eventually, i got through, and he's fine (renting a car to drive back to new york, of all places). my heart goes out to you.
Wow. That's pretty harsh.
I live in Chicago, and I have to say that, for a large city, people are not directly rude or obnoxious, but they certainly are by omission. They choose not to pay attention to people standing around them, they stop their cars to double park on busy streets, they walk three abreast at a snail's pace on a busy sidewalk. They do any number if inane little things that make one want to shoot them.
Chicago is a pretty busy city. If these people you're referring to tried to take it all in, they'd end up standing on a corner somewhere drooling for hours at a time. That they ignore their surroundings and can concentrate on the task at hand -- talking to a client on the phone, going to a meeting, fantasizing about Angelina Jolie -- is evidence that they're able to actually focus on something. Why is that a problem?
Except walking slow and blocking the entire sidewalk. I'm from New York, and I know just what you mean. I !@#*ing hate that.
For anyone who didn't quite catch that, what SpanishInquisition (e-mail him at sikdude@yahoo.com) just said was that we should send a Jew to a labor camp for speaking his mind.
Thanks Adolph, you're a hero.
It seems like we're all trying to find "the problem with..." this box and business plan. If there is a fault, it looks like it might be the ease with which users (by that I mean mostly slashdot readers) can convert it into a desktop PC.
I have to wonder, is the DOD's purchase of this data the kind of thing that leads to targeting specific kids? I usually don't buy into the slippery slope argument, but it isn't inconceivable that N2H2 is lying about how specific the data being collected is.
On a related topic, does the Freedom of Information Act require the DOD to make publicly available the data that they've bought?
I bought the DVPS560D for my parents, whose Bose audio system is only Dolby Pro Logic. They are thoroughly pleased with the DVD player. My dad says it makes his 17-year-old 27" NEC television look like its brand new.
I think he said something more in line with "I never let my schooling interfere with my education."
Anyway, school is a pretty important part of education. I was an outcast myself in school, and it taught me to appreciate the things that were really important. That is, not tailoring myself to make others happy, but to conduct myself in a way that made me happy (I was a dirty little punk rocker in HS =).
Of course it isn't acceptable to be an asshole for the rest of the year, but at Christmas everyone has the chance to get together and celebrate the things that make us human. To avoid this is to admit that something is seriously lacking in your life.
Something lacking in my life?! I should call my Rabbi and ask him what it is.
The word "initiative" means something different in congress. Gore's statement could pretty accurately be paraphrased to "I pushed bills that created the internet." The initiative here is a collection of bills, subsidies, grants, and so on. Did Gore exaggerate? Of course. He's running for President, and Thats Politics (TM). Was it right to stretch the truth? Nope. Did he lie? No.
If anyone can find a record of bills he sponsored around that time, it would probably clear this up pretty quickly.
When Napster is able to implement a business model, there will be other benefits for artists as well, including payments to rightsholders.
This is vague, at best. At worst, its a good reason for Napster to be shut down until the business model is a reality.
What kind of business model could be implemented here? Royalty payment to the copyright owner for each instance of a song being downloaded? Ambiguous filenames could be a big problem there. What if the file is the song name, and happens to be the same as a song by another artist? Who gets paid?
Anyone know a better way?
The DOD doesn't have lobbyists. Lobbyists are hired by political action commitees. DOD staff don't have to make campaign contributions to talk to the president.
Finally a question. When these 'bandwidth' are auctioned, how long is the 'ownership' period? If it isn't time-limited, then the bandwidth is essentially infinitely valuable and we've been screwed once again by lobbiests and the technical morons in Washington.
The purpose of the auction isn't actually a sale, its a lease. I think the duration is something like twenty years.
Open source does not mean that any code submitted gets added. I, for one, would be pleased to know that thousands of talented programmers around the world could review code responsible for the safety of so many travelers. Isn't this exactly what we're all demanding for Carnivore?
If that example ever occured, the older will could be used as evidence to have the new will thrown out. The old will wouldn't be any more valid than the new one, having not been executed, but New York law says that children are the first to inherit (assuming no living spouse).
This example assumes so many things its ludicrous. Threatening to kill someone is a crime. The statue could easily include language that makes death threats exempt.
As for the "delete" key, anyone who works in sensitive information knows how to fully delete something.
Think so? My parents are lawyers. They work with sensitive information all the time, but every time I use one of their PCs I find the recycle bin containing hundreds of files they thought they deleted.
For argument's sake, lets say my mom writes a will for one of her clients. A week later, the client calls, prior to execution of the will (which is essentially making it legally binding) and says "I found another lawyer, you're fired, buh-bye." She would likely shred any existing paper copies and "delete" the document from the computer. A year later, the client dies with a will that excludes his children from inheriting anything. Should the children be able to get a copy of the will from the recycling bin on my mom's PC with which to contest the new will, claiming undue influence or something?
The other side of the issue is that Napster really does eat bandwidth, and that can be really irritating if you're one of the few who does not use it. At my school, Resnet (residential network; the branch of academic computing that gives people net access in dorm rooms) limited all Napster traffic to just 5 megabit up/down combined. My quake 3 ping times dropped by a third of a second after that.
Er. Thanks for the info. How does one post with a +1 bonus?
Ummm.. what? For starters, you probably mean "kiddie porn," not "kitty." From the prior sentence, it sounds like you're advocating it as "good hearted material." Is this really what you meant to post? And, for the sake of the reader, could you, use fewer, commas? An emphasis on a word in speech does not translate to a comma in text.
"1) The people are the government in the US, where majority rules. (Lobbying doesn't do sh!t, btw, I don't care what you hippies say.)
2) The internet is a form of a public utility, grown in the mysterious space where ownership is shared among the government and the telecommunictaions industry. Because the wires are laid over government land, the government has regulatory final say over everything that goes on over that network. And while first ammendment rights are on loan to a good deal of these utilities, the government reserves the right to impose restrictions of your rights in this area. This is what makes the DMCA possible.
3) Linking to illegal material makes you a criminal, at least in an accessorary way. Sorta like being the guy who hires a hitman to take out your enemy, but a much with less at stake. "
1) Well. My dad is a lobbyist, and laws are on the books here in New York state that he wrote. On your statement that lobbyists do not have an impact, I disagree. Good or bad, lobbyists really do make a difference. But what was the hippie comment about?
2) The net was not "grown in blah blah telco and government." I believe the Internet was originally called ARPAnet, as in Advanced Research Projects Agency. As I recall, it was designed to be a communications network that could survive a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. It was mostly universities at first, not telecom companies at all. I don't think I need to go any farther with the history lesson; go search google if you need more. The point is that ignorance is what makes the DCMA possible. Legislators getting advice from ill-informed advisors and less-than-accurate news outlets. That, combined with a desire to make Joe Voter happy and get reelected is what makes bad legislation get passed. Don't believe me? Check out gun control laws in America. Its a mess.
3) I think a better analogy might be the following:
You know that a guy in the alley is making fake IDs, and you point at the alley to passerbys and say "fake IDs in there." Sort of.
I don't see any need to quote your last paragraph. I didn't really understand what you meant, and I'm not sure how to address your.. umm... points.