You will get zero traction from the general population trying to keep access to kiddie porn.
"In the Government's latest efforts to stamp out the scourge of [insert whatever type of porno most excites your obsessive, repressed prurient interests], police will be going door-to-door searching all houses, vehicles, and persons. Failure to submit to search will be considered proof of guilt, and severely punished. Thank you for your cooperation, and think of the children!
Of course, it starts with the indefensible neo-Nazi sites and hate groups, but gradually, this sort of thing can begin to erode the historical record.
Indefensible? I dunno about you, but I tend to think freedom of political speech is entirely worthy of defense, even when the it applies to unpopular or offensive ideas.
Seriously, it's no wonder that I get more work done when I work from home than from the office.
I get the most work done when I can choose whether to work at the office or from home on a given day. It's not so much that one is more distracting than the other, as that they present different kinds of distraction.
But in this story, as in so many others, we see the person who invents something getting rippd off by idiots with no imagination, because of the patent system.
Anyone have data on what proportion of patents are awarded to actual inventors, vs those awarded to evil corporate/university/state overlords? Before anyon goes screaming, "like omg, the evil overlords paid those people, therefore they must own everything!!" -- they paid their employees to work at some particular job, not to invent. Stealing employees' inventions is just a nice side benefit the law affords them.
Proof? Imagine that an employee goes for a year without inventing anything -- does he still have a job? Most likely. Now imagine that same employee stops showing up (and not because he is ill and under a doctor's care) at the office to do whatever it is they're actually paying him to do. Think he'll last more than a week before getting canned? See my point?
Someone tell me again why exactly anyone thinks patents are a good idea? It becomes more and more obvious to me every day that they do NOT promote innovation, and probably do the exact opposite.
Is video of the execution of Nicolas Coucesceau (sp?) worse than videos of underage sex?
Who has a good answer to that? Personally I'd say neither of them are all that bad -- by seeing how the world really works, people learn a great deal.
Those who wish to censor speech (construed broadly to include writing, video, music, art, etc) most often are those whose ideas will not stand up to public scrutiny and open debate.
Wait a minute... I already pay more per month than my neighbor, so I will have a faster internet connection. Faster for EVERYTHING. Now the ISPs are going to ask me to pay even more, so that certain selected (by them, not me) content will be supposedly faster? Yeah, good luck selling that one...
hate speech, child pornography, videos of youths knifing other youths and so forth?
Aside from the child porn, I don't have an issue with this stuff.
WTF - videos of underage sex are worse than videos of murder? Does that mean, by extension, that underage sex itself is worse than murder? Talk about bass-ackwards...
One must assume that the big anti-kiddie-pr0n folks must themselves be raging paedos. Nothing else (that I can think of) explains why they would consider an act that causes no physical harm to be worse than murder.
Here's a radical thought for school administrators: freedom. Why not treat students like the responsible citizens you (presumably) want them to be, and let them make their own decisions?
But perhaps that would not generate enough regulation, paperwork, and employment for lawyers.
Someone remind me, what is the difference between spam sent by "identity thieves", and spam sent by corporations that have "legitimately" obtained my info?
There are several reasons this a terrible, terrible idea.
Do you really want to wait a week or two to be able to sign up places?
No, but I wouldn't mind doing some sort of postal or face-to-face interaction for an OpenID-style identity that would work with many/most websites. Sure it would be a big pain in the ass -- but better a effective one-time, major PIA than hundreds of minor, ineffective PIAs every time I want to use a new site.
The apparent downside to this is loss of online anonymity. But I would argue that in modern police states (USA, UK, PRC, etc) online surveillance is already so widespread that "anonymity" is only an illusion, kept up for the benefit of the gullible masses.
That this guy was arrested and jailed -- for something pretty damn harmless that actually benefited the patrons of the bus system -- suggests the cops really do have too much time on their hands. Tax revenues are down.. anyone for cutting the police budget?
The thing about making 3G bandwidth cheap and affordable to everyone (as it is rapidly becoming in Europe) is that very quickly a small number of jerks will start grossly over utilizing it (e.g. by using it to download movies or large amounts of data, even using it at home, just so it doesn't ). Hence, their get quota limits with 3G
But AT&T is not imposing a quota, or propsing to bill by the gigabyte. I would be pretty surprised if anyone here except a few anonymous cowards would object such measures. Rather, AT&T/Apple have crippled the device by disabling a feature that many users highly value.
who would use up all the available bandwidth with P2P software to download films and games they are too cheap to pay for
It's pretty important to make sure those damn poor people don't have access to good entertainment, eh?
Imho, the only thing that makes the iPod better than competing music players is the (patented) circular touchpad. I personally find it intuitive and pleasant to use; apparently many other folks do, too.
That said, I haven't touched my Nano since I bought an SD card for my Blackberry Pearl. The berry's music player interface is not quite as "fun", but is equally quick & efficient. The reasons I now use the Pearl to the exclusion of the iPod are as follows, in descending order of importance: 1. One less device to carry 2. It's a lot easier to add music. No iTunes (or not-quite-adequate Linux substitute) needed. 3. The ability to type song names on a keyboard makes it quicker/easier to find songs.
Slashdot Mirror
You will get zero traction from the general population trying to keep access to kiddie porn.
"In the Government's latest efforts to stamp out the scourge of [insert whatever type of porno most excites your obsessive, repressed prurient interests], police will be going door-to-door searching all houses, vehicles, and persons. Failure to submit to search will be considered proof of guilt, and severely punished. Thank you for your cooperation, and think of the children!
Of course, it starts with the indefensible neo-Nazi sites and hate groups, but gradually, this sort of thing can begin to erode the historical record.
Indefensible? I dunno about you, but I tend to think freedom of political speech is entirely worthy of defense, even when the it applies to unpopular or offensive ideas.
Seriously, it's no wonder that I get more work done when I work from home than from the office.
I get the most work done when I can choose whether to work at the office or from home on a given day. It's not so much that one is more distracting than the other, as that they present different kinds of distraction.
But in this story, as in so many others, we see the person who invents something getting rippd off by idiots with no imagination, because of the patent system.
Anyone have data on what proportion of patents are awarded to actual inventors, vs those awarded to evil corporate/university/state overlords? Before anyon goes screaming, "like omg, the evil overlords paid those people, therefore they must own everything!!" -- they paid their employees to work at some particular job, not to invent. Stealing employees' inventions is just a nice side benefit the law affords them.
Proof? Imagine that an employee goes for a year without inventing anything -- does he still have a job? Most likely. Now imagine that same employee stops showing up (and not because he is ill and under a doctor's care) at the office to do whatever it is they're actually paying him to do. Think he'll last more than a week before getting canned? See my point?
Someone tell me again why exactly anyone thinks patents are a good idea? It becomes more and more obvious to me every day that they do NOT promote innovation, and probably do the exact opposite.
Is video of the execution of Nicolas Coucesceau (sp?) worse than videos of underage sex?
Who has a good answer to that? Personally I'd say neither of them are all that bad -- by seeing how the world really works, people learn a great deal.
Those who wish to censor speech (construed broadly to include writing, video, music, art, etc) most often are those whose ideas will not stand up to public scrutiny and open debate.
Stop imposing your own fucking morals on us.
You're yelling at the wrong side.
Wait a minute... I already pay more per month than my neighbor, so I will have a faster internet connection. Faster for EVERYTHING. Now the ISPs are going to ask me to pay even more, so that certain selected (by them, not me) content will be supposedly faster? Yeah, good luck selling that one...
Aside from the child porn, I don't have an issue with this stuff.
WTF - videos of underage sex are worse than videos of murder? Does that mean, by extension, that underage sex itself is worse than murder? Talk about bass-ackwards...
One must assume that the big anti-kiddie-pr0n folks must themselves be raging paedos. Nothing else (that I can think of) explains why they would consider an act that causes no physical harm to be worse than murder.
Those who insult people or ideas which make them uncomfortable as 'creepy', make me very uncomfortable.
Here's a radical thought for school administrators: freedom. Why not treat students like the responsible citizens you (presumably) want them to be, and let them make their own decisions?
But perhaps that would not generate enough regulation, paperwork, and employment for lawyers.
Someone remind me, what is the difference between spam sent by "identity thieves", and spam sent by corporations that have "legitimately" obtained my info?
There are several reasons this a terrible, terrible idea.
Do you really want to wait a week or two to be able to sign up places?
No, but I wouldn't mind doing some sort of postal or face-to-face interaction for an OpenID-style identity that would work with many/most websites. Sure it would be a big pain in the ass -- but better a effective one-time, major PIA than hundreds of minor, ineffective PIAs every time I want to use a new site.
The apparent downside to this is loss of online anonymity. But I would argue that in modern police states (USA, UK, PRC, etc) online surveillance is already so widespread that "anonymity" is only an illusion, kept up for the benefit of the gullible masses.
Yes, and it seems very unprofessional of them.
Why do people think 'professional' equals 'unfun'?
Why are so many of you living with such FEAR of your management?
a) Management at many companies is chock full o' humorless, self-important drones.
b) Lotta people are spineless cowards when confronted by authority figures.
I do think that killing without being at risk yourself is new and different.
"... that beautiful detachment and devotion to stern justice of men dealing in death without being in any danger of it." -- Hemingway
That this guy was arrested and jailed -- for something pretty damn harmless that actually benefited the patrons of the bus system -- suggests the cops really do have too much time on their hands. Tax revenues are down.. anyone for cutting the police budget?
The thing about making 3G bandwidth cheap and affordable to everyone (as it is rapidly becoming in Europe) is that very quickly a small number of jerks will start grossly over utilizing it (e.g. by using it to download movies or large amounts of data, even using it at home, just so it doesn't ). Hence, their get quota limits with 3G
But AT&T is not imposing a quota, or propsing to bill by the gigabyte. I would be pretty surprised if anyone here except a few anonymous cowards would object such measures. Rather, AT&T/Apple have crippled the device by disabling a feature that many users highly value.
who would use up all the available bandwidth with P2P software to download films and games they are too cheap to pay for
It's pretty important to make sure those damn poor people don't have access to good entertainment, eh?
Imho, the only thing that makes the iPod better than competing music players is the (patented) circular touchpad. I personally find it intuitive and pleasant to use; apparently many other folks do, too.
That said, I haven't touched my Nano since I bought an SD card for my Blackberry Pearl. The berry's music player interface is not quite as "fun", but is equally quick & efficient. The reasons I now use the Pearl to the exclusion of the iPod are as follows, in descending order of importance:
1. One less device to carry
2. It's a lot easier to add music. No iTunes (or not-quite-adequate Linux substitute) needed.
3. The ability to type song names on a keyboard makes it quicker/easier to find songs.
duhhhh.
If this is any indication of the board's overall mindset, kids in your district are gonna turn out real stupid..
The only good fascist is a dead fascist... and gentlemen, the gods of blessed us with one dead fascist.
This isn't even slightly insightful. This fellow is trolling, not presenting a legit question.