Unjust laws should be removed, not reinforced. An example of this is Prohibition. Consuming Alcohol was against the law, but no one followed the law. The government saw eventually that the law was unjust because so many broke it, and it was removed.
So, since smoking pot is more innocuous than consuming alcohol, why hasn't the absurd and disastrous "war on drugs" not been given up yet, then? Maybe it used to work the way you describe, but it sure doesn't appear to work that way anymore. Too many entrenched interests.
I really think usenet still has a place on the web, a very useful place.
Um, no. Bringing Usenet to the web has consistently been a disaster (see the Google Groups atrocity). Usenet's proper place of access is very definitely in a newsreader with decent functionality, installed on your local computer.
Usenet is still everything that you describe. I don't know why people keep insisting it's dead when in fact it's up and running and doing fine. (Maybe it's because Slashdot is a glorified web forum so is biased against Usenet use.) Just get a properly run text-only feed (I use news.individual.net for a nominal fee of EUR 10 per year which is about USD 15) and enjoy your spam-free text-based Usenet experience. You pay for it and not advertisers, so your privacy is safe. With a decent newsreader you get far better functionality in terms of threading, killfiles, speed, etc. than webforums have ever offered.
Yes, I use it every day. Spam is a problem that was effectively solved years ago. You just need to get a properly run feed. (Hint: Google Groups is not one.)
Thank you for both of your posts. My sentiments exactly. I've actually had an American acquaintance of mine die of complications from undiagnosed diabetes because he couldn't get healthcare coverage in that lovely capitalist paradise. He was in his twenties and his death is frankly unnecessary and tragic.
Yet another way for the veterans affairs office to waste taxpayers dollars.
http://fnonsl.fantasy-net.net/category/vet-center [fantasy-net.net]
^^^__Did you know the VA hospital owns property in second life? They're going to build virtual ski slopes for the legless vets to ski down. Woohoo!
From your link: "It is supported by primarily by donations and is not affiliated with or sponsored by any US government agency."
WebKit has shown it's chops in fast rendering, small size, portability, etc. Everyone should just adopt it. Let it be the standard.
Remember when IE was the de facto standard? Remember how it stagnated and we were stuck with IE6 brokenness for years until Firefox came along and kicked their ass in gear? That's why we need competition. Having one single dominating platform will result in stagnation.
On a related note, Spamhaus recently issued this statement about Atrivo/Intercage, US-based persistent criminal spammer hosts. In the news.admin.net-abuse.email newsgroup, Steve Linford of Spamhaus indicated they made this statement because they are highly frustrated with law enforcement's inaction.
I suppose Apple did 'get it right' in one respect: they found a model that satisfies everyone. The record companies are happy, because they're stupid enough to think Apple is defending their interests, and consumers like you are happy because the DRM may as well not be there.
Exactly, that was their whole idea. Apple didn't want DRM in the first place, and "ineffective" DRM is what they managed to negotiate with the record companies. Not that there is such a thing as actually effective DRM.
This doesn't strike me as a stable equilibrium though.
Agreed, a stable equilibrium will be the result of getting rid of DRM altogether. Apple is already moving in that direction, as there are now many DRM-free tracks in the itunes store.
If the GPL was written in English instead of legalese, I think there would be less confusion.
The folks who should be concerned with the GPL are technical folks; not lawyers.
If software was written in English instead of programming languages, I think there would be less confusion.
The folks who should be concerned with software are ordinary folks; not programmers.
But of course, in reality, both of these matters are too complex to accurately express in standard English.
The GPL is a hack of the legal system with the goal of turning copyright upside down. That hack only works because it's written in legalese.
Instead, machines have a cryptographically encoded conversation to establish both parties' authenticity, using digital keys that we, as users, have no need to see.
And when people have to stoop to this pathetic level of semantics to defend the pedophile, you know there's nothing more useful to say. I rest my case.
Right. He has uncontrollable urges, but he has never harmed and never intends to harm a child.
You're awfully ready to accept that claim by the AC as fact, even though the AC's post includes several hints that indicate otherwise. His post is as internally contradictory as any pedophile's justification of a committed child rape. These "reasoning" patterns are well known and easily recognizable with some experience.
So you tell me: If I have an uncontrollable urge to slap my boss, but I don't, was my urge really uncontrollable?
You couldn't legitimately call it an uncontrollable urge then, because... wait for it... you controlled it! Duh.
Not every pedophile is a rapist, and there are far more than you are willing to admit exist.
I'm not really bothered either way. What bothers me is a self-confessed pedophile who:
admits to having an uncontrollable urge to have sex with children, and
rather than avoid children as a consequence, admits to having regular "constructive" contacts with them.
That AC post had "self-confessed child rapist" written all over it. I'm utterly astounded by the naiveté of Slashdot posters. You'd think a geek audience would be able to employ some critical thinking rather than going "oooh, he's so brave cuz he likes sex with children, let's all admire him and put him on a fucking pedestal!!!!!!1!!1;"
No, he admits to having urges that he cant change.
That's not at all what his message actually said.
And he's OMFG a pedophile, just like 30,000,000 other people in America. (%10 of the population)
Maybe that's true according to the perverted US government definition of it, where naked pictures of anyone under 18 are child porn. To any sane person, a pedophile is a person who wants to have sex with children, not sixteen year olds. You can't tell me that 10% of Americans feel an uncontrollable urge to rape eight year olds. No sane person who wants to have sex with sixteen year olds would call himself a pedophile. This AC did.
Now your immediate strong hostility toward anyone with such (controlled) urges tells me that you have some feelings you're denying...
Nice ad hominem. It tells me that you have some feelings you're denying - like the scary feeling I just might simply be right.
He was saying he doesn't have any desire to actually have sex with them, you fucking jackass.
No he didn't, you fucking pedophile apologist. He said he had no plans to kidnap, molest or rape them. He said he can't control the urge to have sex with them. To his pedophile mind, having sex with them is not kidnapping/molesting/raping them. After all, children want it. That's how pedophiles work.
has one fatal flaw: most men only have sex with women able to give proper consent. There are such things as half-decent pedophiles;
Your implication that children are able to "give proper consent" to having sex with adults is noted, pedophile apologist.
some of my best friends on the internet fall under this category.
You have a great taste in friends, pedophile apologist. Some of my best friends are victims of them.
Don't ever think that just because someone is attracted to children that that makes them a scumbag.
Don't ever think that someone who fucking admits to having sex with children is not a scumbag.
And, yes, you're right. while there is some intersection between pedophiles and child molesters, it is nowhere near a majority. If you want to see how ridiculous this seems, replace 'pedophile' with 'straight male' and child with 'woman'. You end up with "straight male = sick woman raping motherfucker".
But in reality, "straight male" = "male who will probably have sex with one or more women during the course of his life". So, continuing your analogy, "pedophile" = "person who will probably have sex with one or more children during the course of his lifetime".
The problem with that is that having sex with a children constitutes sexual abuse that will damage them for the rest of their lives, and is always rape. And that is why there is a very justified "prejudice" against pedophiles.
This is not a wisecrack. Try actually reading the grandparent message by the AC you so admire. While denying any wrongdoing, he explicitly admits to having "urges" he "can't control". And in spite of that inability to control himself, he doesn't stay away from children: he claims to somehow have a "entirely constructive relationship" with the children he comes in contact with. Gotta wonder what that means... constructive to what exactly? His uncontrollable sexual urges maybe?
And of course our brave AC "doesn't kidnap, rape or molest children". After all, children have sex with adults perfectly voluntarily. NAMBLA says so, so it must be true.
God damnit, this makes me sick to my stomach. I know too many victims of scumbags like this personally.
Slashdot Mirror
So, since smoking pot is more innocuous than consuming alcohol, why hasn't the absurd and disastrous "war on drugs" not been given up yet, then? Maybe it used to work the way you describe, but it sure doesn't appear to work that way anymore. Too many entrenched interests.
Um, no. Bringing Usenet to the web has consistently been a disaster (see the Google Groups atrocity). Usenet's proper place of access is very definitely in a newsreader with decent functionality, installed on your local computer.
Usenet is still everything that you describe. I don't know why people keep insisting it's dead when in fact it's up and running and doing fine. (Maybe it's because Slashdot is a glorified web forum so is biased against Usenet use.) Just get a properly run text-only feed (I use news.individual.net for a nominal fee of EUR 10 per year which is about USD 15) and enjoy your spam-free text-based Usenet experience. You pay for it and not advertisers, so your privacy is safe. With a decent newsreader you get far better functionality in terms of threading, killfiles, speed, etc. than webforums have ever offered.
Yes, I use it every day. Spam is a problem that was effectively solved years ago. You just need to get a properly run feed. (Hint: Google Groups is not one.)
Thank you for both of your posts. My sentiments exactly. I've actually had an American acquaintance of mine die of complications from undiagnosed diabetes because he couldn't get healthcare coverage in that lovely capitalist paradise. He was in his twenties and his death is frankly unnecessary and tragic.
From your link: "It is supported by primarily by donations and is not affiliated with or sponsored by any US government agency."
Try again.
Heh. Read the comments in the HTML source for more hilarity, including an RSS feed.
If you think a lack of competition will not stagnate an open source project just because it's open source, you're the one who's insane.
Remember when IE was the de facto standard? Remember how it stagnated and we were stuck with IE6 brokenness for years until Firefox came along and kicked their ass in gear? That's why we need competition. Having one single dominating platform will result in stagnation.
On a related note, Spamhaus recently issued this statement about Atrivo/Intercage, US-based persistent criminal spammer hosts. In the news.admin.net-abuse.email newsgroup, Steve Linford of Spamhaus indicated they made this statement because they are highly frustrated with law enforcement's inaction.
The iPhone's got its own YouTube player.
I take it you never heard of Debian? They have precompiled binaries for pretty much every current processor architecture, including MIPS.
Well, good for them. At least someone has principles. Whatever they can do to force the brokenness to be fixed is a good thing.
In this case it must have worked, as MSN is working fine for me in Opera right now.
Opera doesn't.
Exactly, that was their whole idea. Apple didn't want DRM in the first place, and "ineffective" DRM is what they managed to negotiate with the record companies. Not that there is such a thing as actually effective DRM.
Agreed, a stable equilibrium will be the result of getting rid of DRM altogether. Apple is already moving in that direction, as there are now many DRM-free tracks in the itunes store.
If software was written in English instead of programming languages, I think there would be less confusion.
The folks who should be concerned with software are ordinary folks; not programmers.
But of course, in reality, both of these matters are too complex to accurately express in standard English.
The GPL is a hack of the legal system with the goal of turning copyright upside down. That hack only works because it's written in legalese.
Hey, if he pulled that off, he sure has the credentials to know what he's talking about...
For some reason I can't seem to put my finger on, I sense strong cognitive dissonance in the above...
I've been doing that for years with SSH. Funny, that.
And when people have to stoop to this pathetic level of semantics to defend the pedophile, you know there's nothing more useful to say. I rest my case.
You're awfully ready to accept that claim by the AC as fact, even though the AC's post includes several hints that indicate otherwise. His post is as internally contradictory as any pedophile's justification of a committed child rape. These "reasoning" patterns are well known and easily recognizable with some experience.
You couldn't legitimately call it an uncontrollable urge then, because... wait for it... you controlled it! Duh.
I'm not really bothered either way. What bothers me is a self-confessed pedophile who:
That AC post had "self-confessed child rapist" written all over it. I'm utterly astounded by the naiveté of Slashdot posters. You'd think a geek audience would be able to employ some critical thinking rather than going "oooh, he's so brave cuz he likes sex with children, let's all admire him and put him on a fucking pedestal!!!!!!1!!1;"
That's not at all what his message actually said.
Maybe that's true according to the perverted US government definition of it, where naked pictures of anyone under 18 are child porn. To any sane person, a pedophile is a person who wants to have sex with children, not sixteen year olds. You can't tell me that 10% of Americans feel an uncontrollable urge to rape eight year olds. No sane person who wants to have sex with sixteen year olds would call himself a pedophile. This AC did.
Nice ad hominem. It tells me that you have some feelings you're denying - like the scary feeling I just might simply be right.
No he didn't, you fucking pedophile apologist. He said he had no plans to kidnap, molest or rape them. He said he can't control the urge to have sex with them. To his pedophile mind, having sex with them is not kidnapping/molesting/raping them. After all, children want it. That's how pedophiles work.
Your implication that children are able to "give proper consent" to having sex with adults is noted, pedophile apologist.
You have a great taste in friends, pedophile apologist. Some of my best friends are victims of them.
Don't ever think that someone who fucking admits to having sex with children is not a scumbag.
But in reality, "straight male" = "male who will probably have sex with one or more women during the course of his life". So, continuing your analogy, "pedophile" = "person who will probably have sex with one or more children during the course of his lifetime".
The problem with that is that having sex with a children constitutes sexual abuse that will damage them for the rest of their lives, and is always rape. And that is why there is a very justified "prejudice" against pedophiles.
This is not a wisecrack. Try actually reading the grandparent message by the AC you so admire. While denying any wrongdoing, he explicitly admits to having "urges" he "can't control". And in spite of that inability to control himself, he doesn't stay away from children: he claims to somehow have a "entirely constructive relationship" with the children he comes in contact with. Gotta wonder what that means... constructive to what exactly? His uncontrollable sexual urges maybe?
And of course our brave AC "doesn't kidnap, rape or molest children". After all, children have sex with adults perfectly voluntarily. NAMBLA says so, so it must be true.
God damnit, this makes me sick to my stomach. I know too many victims of scumbags like this personally.
No, it isn't. ndiswrapper runs windows network drivers directly in kernelspace. (So they can and do freeze your entire system solid.)