Konqueror sounds good, and I'm sure that it's great, and there are plenty of things wrong with Mozilla, but given a choice, I'd rather use Mozilla. The Open Source community has a small number of really successful projects that reach across the platform boundaries... Apache and PHP are both making moves onto Win32, FreeBSD is finding use in Mac OS X, and I'm sure that there are a few others that I'm just too tired to think of right now.
Mozilla is one of those apps... Windows users have Internet Explorer, ditto for Mac users, and X users have KDE and Konqueror. I think that Opera is available on those platforms as well. Mozilla is far from unusable, though it still has a ways to go to really be on par with its competitors, but I think that one day, it will really be a good example of an Open Source accomplishment.
If it is illegal I don't imagine that it's too huge a deal for him anyways... it was his rule to begin with.
Moore himself helped craft the retirement edict that is nudging him off the board. ``It must have been 20 years ago,'' he said. ``I could have set up a founder's exception.'' But, the innovator wistfully added, ``it seemed so far away then.''
In reality does it do anything more than allow a parent
to ignore their children just that much more?
Turning the V-Chip on takes more effort than not bothering. Enabling the V-Chip is not the act of a parent ignoring his children.
What we need
isnt content 'safeguards' what we need is parents to sit down with their
children and teach them right and wrong.
The world is colored in shades of gray. Is hunting right or wrong? Every weekend, TNN (an American channel... look it up in your TV Guide) runs automotive shows, fishing shows, and hunting shows. I've seen a Texan hunting Elk with a bow and arrow, and a guy from Washington state sport hunting for moose. A human isn't being killed (which is always make-believe in movies and television), but I would think that the act of seeing an animal stalked, killed and gutted (no make-believe here...) might be disturbing to my 8 year old daughter.
Some television programs don't earn their ratings simply because of violence. Sex and profanity are also components of a program's rating. Is the word 'fuck' right or wrong? You might teach your children that it's a bad word... that it's a dirty word, but I'd also just rather my child not hear it very often at all.
From the people who brought you content filters for china, now presenting:
Canadian Television for Parents who are too busy to be parents.
Does this mean that parents must always be present when their children watch television? Here, channel 30 is a kids station, and channel 19 is the Family channel. In between lie 2 channels that show uncensored movies. It's not inconceivable that my child might pass through one of those movie channels on her way from channel 19 to channel 30, and inadvertently hear the word 'fuck'. She's been taught that it's a bad word, and she's not supposed to say it, but I'd also just rather that she not hear it very often, so why not use the V-Chip to block shows that might happen to use the f-word? This paragraph might have gotten a little convoluted but what I'm trying to say is that the V-Chip is more than just a tool used in parental neglect.
Seriously,
the possibility for abuse of such a system by those in control of it far outweighs
any perceived gains.
The only avenue of abuse that I can think of is for some crazed censor to suddenly decide that Pokemon deserves a PG13 rating. Isn't it better to have the child approach her parents to ask for the V-Chip to be disabled for the duration of a show so that she could watch it? I'd rather have the ability to block content on my end than have someone do it for me.
Got the following from http://lum.xrgaming.net/.
There's a note about the site suffering from frequent outages, so I'll paste their update:
Electronic Arts and Origin Systems have announced a plan that will increase their focus on Ultima Online and halt production of OWO: ORIGIN (UO2). The reason is simple, rather than creating OWO: ORIGIN (UO2) as a parallel world competing with UO, we've decided to put those resources into growing and improving the core offering for Ultima Online's 230,000 loyal subscribers.
In the near future and with the release next week of Ultima Online: Third Dawn, players will see new lands, new creatures, and a world that is continually evolving within Ultima Online.
Latest update as of 3:30p: Massive layoffs throughout EA. 85 from OSI alone. Kesmai also gutted (at least 40, Battletech and Air Warrior 4 both cancelled) and 80 elsewhere in EA. Harry Potter cancelled. Jack Heistand (OSI's CEO) gone. Gordon "Tyrant" Walton moved to Sims Online.
The home console market is an extremely fickle one. Look at Sega for a good example. The Dreamcast was a very good system, and had a strong library of games. It was also available on the market way ahead of the next gen consoles manufactured by the likes of Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft. Despite all of this, Sega lost scads of cash on the console and restorted to discontinuing its console in lieu of developing titles for other machines.
Indrema is a very interesting project, and I sincerely hope that it's successful, but I fear that it just doesn't have what it takes to cut it.
Strong developer support is one of the key components of success (ie: support from big names... Nintendo's N64 didn't enjoy the success that it might have because Nintendo lost Square as a developer prior to the release of the console). I haven't followed Indrema too closely, but a quick visit to their web site didn't reveal anything about 3rd party developer support (though there's a really good chance that I just missed it). Games for the mainstream consoles (Dreamcast, PS2, GAME CUBE, etc) are always extensively hyped.
Consumers don't necessarily want all the sweet goodies that Indrema promises... game player/mp3 player/web browser/tivo thingy... I once read an article regarding the PS2's DVD support, and the author suggested that Sony's combination of home entertainment devices might confuse consumers (I regret that I can't provide a link to the relevant site... it was a few months ago that I read it).
The only really positive thing that I can think of that works in Indrema's favour is that the console market would have been awefully crowded if Sega hadn't dropped the Dreamcast... with Nintendo and Microsoft introducing their new machines later this year, I fear that it's going to be an uphill fight for Indrema.
I've read a number of the posts so far that outline solutions to stop and prevent disturbances from telemarketers as provided by US Federal law, but does anyone know about similar provisions under Canadian law?
Reading the page, the question came into my mind was whether or not this is, as J D Sallen made a point of saying, a freedom of speech issue?
The logical extensions of Bianchi's decisions auger very poorly for freespeech on the Internet. For example, watch out if you have any religious content, or any noncommercial content for that matter, with a ".com" address. Bianchi ruled mockingly that "If the Respondent is using the domain name for the very saint and noble purpose of distributing a religious message, why should they use a.com domain name (for commercial use)?" And try to mount a defense? Good luck!
I definitely don't like the thought of registering a domain and then having some commercial entity coming along and essentially bumping me off of it, but after I read Sallen's note, I really felt like he was trying to bring freedom of speech into the argument when that really wasn't the issue.
What I see as being the issue is more of property rights... I can't imagine Sallen registering the domain in the hopes of making some cash by selling it to the world famous Corinthians soccer team (this is the first time that I've even heard of them). And it's not like he's got banners and notices plastered all over his site announcing the availability of the domain for sale or auction.
The other thing that I found irritating was a quote from Bianchi:
If the Respondent is using the domain name for the very saint and noble purpose of distributing a religious message, why should they use a.com domain name (for commercial use)?
If there were some sort of wholesale persecution of.com domains that were used for non-commercial purposes, I'd be happy. The truth of the matter is that there's no regulation of domain usage and thus this argument is completely irrelevant. I read someone else's post here to the effect that national TLDs should be used to help prevent incidents like this, and I totally agree. I also think, however, that if an official organization (WIPO) is going to try and use the whole ".com yet no commerce" argument, then there should also be active policing.
I think that there's got to be some sort of happy medium as far as computers and young children go. I don't think that there needs to be a computer in every classroom, but I certainly don't think that there should be some sort of approved age where children are allowed to use PCs.
This article seemed a little off to me... comments like 'Computers download information, he says. They do not teach children to think' seem especially ignorant to me considering you could say something very similar about books ('Books contain information. They do not teach children to think').
In grade 2, my class got our own little Apple. It was a good machine for the time, and it was something neat for us to see, but it wasn't really used a great deal outside of playing hangman and thus practicing our spelling and reading. The teachers certainly didn't use it as a primary teaching tool. Later, in grade 4, our school set up a dedicated computer room where my class would go for an afternoon once a week and use LOGO and play Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.
All in all, I think that I'm quite glad that I had the opportunity to experience computers at a young age... my reading, spelling, geometry and geography were all helped out a little bit, but I also got a chance to get used to keyboards, monitors, and printers (no mice until later), items which, now as an adult, I find that I seldom go a day without using.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think that computers for young children are as good or evil as some people say they are... I think that PCs on every desk is probably a bad idea, but no computers at all is just as bad.
Slashdot Mirror
Mozilla is one of those apps... Windows users have Internet Explorer, ditto for Mac users, and X users have KDE and Konqueror. I think that Opera is available on those platforms as well. Mozilla is far from unusable, though it still has a ways to go to really be on par with its competitors, but I think that one day, it will really be a good example of an Open Source accomplishment.
Moore himself helped craft the retirement edict that is nudging him off the board. ``It must have been 20 years ago,'' he said. ``I could have set up a founder's exception.'' But, the innovator wistfully added, ``it seemed so far away then.''
Turning the V-Chip on takes more effort than not bothering. Enabling the V-Chip is not the act of a parent ignoring his children.
What we need isnt content 'safeguards' what we need is parents to sit down with their children and teach them right and wrong. The world is colored in shades of gray. Is hunting right or wrong? Every weekend, TNN (an American channel... look it up in your TV Guide) runs automotive shows, fishing shows, and hunting shows. I've seen a Texan hunting Elk with a bow and arrow, and a guy from Washington state sport hunting for moose. A human isn't being killed (which is always make-believe in movies and television), but I would think that the act of seeing an animal stalked, killed and gutted (no make-believe here...) might be disturbing to my 8 year old daughter.
Some television programs don't earn their ratings simply because of violence. Sex and profanity are also components of a program's rating. Is the word 'fuck' right or wrong? You might teach your children that it's a bad word... that it's a dirty word, but I'd also just rather my child not hear it very often at all.
From the people who brought you content filters for china, now presenting: Canadian Television for Parents who are too busy to be parents.
Does this mean that parents must always be present when their children watch television? Here, channel 30 is a kids station, and channel 19 is the Family channel. In between lie 2 channels that show uncensored movies. It's not inconceivable that my child might pass through one of those movie channels on her way from channel 19 to channel 30, and inadvertently hear the word 'fuck'. She's been taught that it's a bad word, and she's not supposed to say it, but I'd also just rather that she not hear it very often, so why not use the V-Chip to block shows that might happen to use the f-word? This paragraph might have gotten a little convoluted but what I'm trying to say is that the V-Chip is more than just a tool used in parental neglect.
Seriously, the possibility for abuse of such a system by those in control of it far outweighs any perceived gains.
The only avenue of abuse that I can think of is for some crazed censor to suddenly decide that Pokemon deserves a PG13 rating. Isn't it better to have the child approach her parents to ask for the V-Chip to be disabled for the duration of a show so that she could watch it? I'd rather have the ability to block content on my end than have someone do it for me.
Electronic Arts and Origin Systems have announced a plan that will increase their focus on Ultima Online and halt production of OWO: ORIGIN (UO2). The reason is simple, rather than creating OWO: ORIGIN (UO2) as a parallel world competing with UO, we've decided to put those resources into growing and improving the core offering for Ultima Online's 230,000 loyal subscribers.
In the near future and with the release next week of Ultima Online: Third Dawn, players will see new lands, new creatures, and a world that is continually evolving within Ultima Online.
Latest update as of 3:30p: Massive layoffs throughout EA. 85 from OSI alone. Kesmai also gutted (at least 40, Battletech and Air Warrior 4 both cancelled) and 80 elsewhere in EA. Harry Potter cancelled. Jack Heistand (OSI's CEO) gone. Gordon "Tyrant" Walton moved to Sims Online.
Indrema is a very interesting project, and I sincerely hope that it's successful, but I fear that it just doesn't have what it takes to cut it.
Strong developer support is one of the key components of success (ie: support from big names... Nintendo's N64 didn't enjoy the success that it might have because Nintendo lost Square as a developer prior to the release of the console). I haven't followed Indrema too closely, but a quick visit to their web site didn't reveal anything about 3rd party developer support (though there's a really good chance that I just missed it). Games for the mainstream consoles (Dreamcast, PS2, GAME CUBE, etc) are always extensively hyped.
Consumers don't necessarily want all the sweet goodies that Indrema promises... game player/mp3 player/web browser/tivo thingy... I once read an article regarding the PS2's DVD support, and the author suggested that Sony's combination of home entertainment devices might confuse consumers (I regret that I can't provide a link to the relevant site... it was a few months ago that I read it).
The only really positive thing that I can think of that works in Indrema's favour is that the console market would have been awefully crowded if Sega hadn't dropped the Dreamcast... with Nintendo and Microsoft introducing their new machines later this year, I fear that it's going to be an uphill fight for Indrema.
I've read a number of the posts so far that outline solutions to stop and prevent disturbances from telemarketers as provided by US Federal law, but does anyone know about similar provisions under Canadian law?
What I see as being the issue is more of property rights... I can't imagine Sallen registering the domain in the hopes of making some cash by selling it to the world famous Corinthians soccer team (this is the first time that I've even heard of them). And it's not like he's got banners and notices plastered all over his site announcing the availability of the domain for sale or auction.
The other thing that I found irritating was a quote from Bianchi:
If there were some sort of wholesale persecution ofAnyways, just my 2 cents.
- moo
This article seemed a little off to me... comments like 'Computers download information, he says. They do not teach children to think' seem especially ignorant to me considering you could say something very similar about books ('Books contain information. They do not teach children to think').
In grade 2, my class got our own little Apple. It was a good machine for the time, and it was something neat for us to see, but it wasn't really used a great deal outside of playing hangman and thus practicing our spelling and reading. The teachers certainly didn't use it as a primary teaching tool. Later, in grade 4, our school set up a dedicated computer room where my class would go for an afternoon once a week and use LOGO and play Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.
All in all, I think that I'm quite glad that I had the opportunity to experience computers at a young age... my reading, spelling, geometry and geography were all helped out a little bit, but I also got a chance to get used to keyboards, monitors, and printers (no mice until later), items which, now as an adult, I find that I seldom go a day without using.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think that computers for young children are as good or evil as some people say they are... I think that PCs on every desk is probably a bad idea, but no computers at all is just as bad.
moo