Qwest (the phone company) is currently one of the worlds largest DSL providers. Qwest (in a move that is of questionable legality) use their government regulated monopoly on phone services to push their non-regulated ISP business.
One of the big reasons that customers choose Qwest as an ISP for DSL is that they are told, either explicitly, or implicitly, by sales people, that this combinations of services is neccesary (which of course it is not).
With Qwest.net soon being part of MSN, it will lose one of its big selling points for DSL.
Also, DSL customers who were Qwest ISP customers will have to go back to making twice as many phone calls to get their DSL installed...both to Qwest to get the hardware installed, and to MSN to get the ISP side. In other words, Qwest is losing one of its big selling point (actually maybe the only one) - the ease of use from "bundled" services.
Not all free-trade opponents are anarchists throwing beer bottles. The statistical percentage of free-trade advocates who fit this description is probably about the same as the amount of Linux users who are script kiddies.
Businesses all competing against each other? Remember Adam Smith, the inventor of the theory of free market economies, wrote : "Whenever competitors meet together, they quickly become conspirators" or words to that effect. The largest companies in the world can compete against each other for labor and markets, or they can call up good ol' Donny from Stanford and make an agreement not to undercut each other in wages and prices. Which do they think they will do? Probably both, but in either case they will have the ability to do either.
Last time I checked, Qwest.net had all of their pop, DNS,/etc servers running BSD. What are the chances that MSFT is going to try to switch these over for propaganda purposes?
If they do, it might make Qwest service even more spotty...
That was my first response, years ago, when the WTO was first becoming the "Vietnam of our Generation". That there was no way to keep the world broken into provinces, so why try?
Well, the fact of the matter is that the WTO wants to brake down national borders, but only in certain ways for certain people.
I am perhaps more ignorant on this subject then I should be, but I have been told that (for example) the WTO is trying to make a law that makes it easier for business executives to cross national borders for business purposes, but it doesn't give that same protection to journalists, or political activists\observers. Now of course it could be argued that one is for business purposes and one is political, but realistically, some of those business executives are going to be spreading political influence, either directly or indirectly. So basically what the WTO is doing in this example is opening borders for some but not for others.
I don't buy the whole thing about the WTO being a human rights\free speech treaty. If people wanted a treaty to ensure human rights or free speech, why not just write a treaty ensuring those things instead of a treaty allowing corporations and goverments to sue other governments over health and safety laws? Because no one is going to sign the human rights treaty that hasn't already.
If we want a treaty that sets standards for fair exchange of information, money and people across borders, lets all get together and write that treaty, not let a few corporations and other 31337 people get together in secret and decide what these standards will be.
If anyone wants to read my childish, oversimplified overview of OS theory (since this post got so many responses, someone might be interested), it's at:
I was up on all of those besides Tcsh and KDE. KDE doesn't surprise me that much, but how do you port a Linux shell to Windows?
From my (admittedly) basic knowledge of OS theory, a shell pretty much takes the input\output from the kernel and then manipulates it.
But in all ways that Windows works, a certain set of programs takes the input\output from kernel32.dll and works with it...or is it possible to place a program not made by Microsoft on top of kernel32.dll? Or is the Windows port of tcsh not a real shell as such, but just a text manipulating application that looks like a shell, that requires the Windows shell to pass it information?
I guess the (off-topic) question could be, what is the real difference between a shell and an application that looks like a shell?
The Illuminati. they disguise themselves as the religious right and the corporations when they feel like it, and disguise themselves as liberal, forward looking social engineering government employees when that suits them.
Of course, I seriously doubt that there is a way that hotmail could screen to see if someone is in Maryland, and even if they could, they would not exclude them from using their sercices.
But still, if I use hotmail, and the computer I am using it in is in Maryland, does that count? After all, the computer in Maryland is just a device to edit an html page on a server in California. How can the law stop me from using that computer for that purpose?
How can anyone say what the exact geographical location of an internet transaction? Is it where the client and server computers are located? Is it
where the backbone and routers are located? Or is it where the individuals and corporations involved have their legal residencies?
Yet another story on Slashdot that shows that Slashdot is turning into all-stoner news.
(Gurgles)
So, dude, do you ever think about like, how wasteful cities are? Like, all those cities spread out, like, messing up the nature and stuff.
yeah, thats a total bummer dude. like, rats, and beavers and stuff need homes to
(Gurgles)
Anyway, like, what if we built like a building that was , like, a mile tall? And then we could, like, fill it up with Chinese! and they would be able to chill there and everything! They would have like, movie theaters and everything.
(Gurgles)
What would be even cooler, is, if we like genetically engineered Chinese people to be, like 3 feet tall, so we could, fit, like, 7 as many people in!
Dude, and we could like, grow, them hydroponically and stuff!
(Gurgles)
Yeah, and we could run the whole thing off a nine-volt battery!
Too true, too true!
The history of the 2nd half of the 20th century would be much different if MK-Ultra had confined themselves to marijuana
Most of the Fidel Castro assasination attempts seem to have come from a very whacked out mind, although it was probably something stronger then weed...it could be argued that the entire history of spying is based on the weird ideas that paranoid adrenalin junkies come up with to amuse themselves. But this is getting OT.
Despite the "war on drugs", it seems that our nations secret security forces still enjoy a bong hit of their own.
dudes...you know what would be awesome??? Remember when we used to, like, fly rc airplanes? Can you imagine making a spy plane out of one of those?
(Gurgles)
Dude, is that shit laced? Your ideas are always so crazy!
(Gurgles)
Yeah, that's what you said about fixing the Florida election...now back to my spyplane...we can run it all off a nine volt battery!
Re:Skydiving should not be countenanced
on
Virtual Skydive
·
· Score: 1
Well, please excuse me for saying I hope we see more of this guy.
With a UID of 854, it seems that he has probably been around for a while.
Also, the moderators might want to check out this guys comments before they moderate him...some of his comments from the past few weeks have been moderated about 15 times, half up and half down.
Re:Skydiving should not be countenanced
on
Virtual Skydive
·
· Score: 1
+5, Funny
I was going to argue this post, but now I realize how funny it is.
pederasty and coprophillia will reach all time highs as the nation's moral fiber is flushed down the drain like so many digested raisin-bran miffins with cream cheese and a slice of canteloupe
I hope this guy is planning on making more Slashdot posts.
Isn't CERT a government agency? Isn't it charging for updates somewhat akin to having to tip the fire department extra to get to your house before it burns down?
Dude, have you ever thought about how wasteful batteries are? Like, why don't we like, build a PDA that runs on Solar Power? Because, like, its natural dude!
(Gurgling)
You know what would be even cooler? If you could, like, have a button on the PDA that would order a pizza to your door any time, day or night!
(Gurgling)
Dude, munchies over FTP would be 31337!!! If only I could remember my password...
Dude, you know what would be the coolest thing ever! If you could make a PDA into a BONG!!!
Yeah, and we could run the whole thing off a nine volt battery!!!
Stir away...your comment (and the ATPase inhibition in my system) has got me thinking...
What is the number one derivative effect that people get from music? Emotional affect, right? Music introduces us to many new emotional states. Can those emotional states be seen as copies of the music? How much longer after listening to a piece of music am I allowed to feel happy? Do I have to mail the Pixies' record company money for all those times I lifted up my spirits by humming "Wave of Mutilation"?
How bout if I do a little dance to the tune of the music? Do I have to get permission to do that? What if I am not encoding the rhythm of the song but instead just happen to be dancing what I am feeling?
anyone else want to think up any more ridiculous examples, be free to go ahead...
That's one of the ones that I was specifically thinking of... Of course, there are hundreds of others.
Belladonna is another one, that is also quite common growing ditchside in the continental United States. Of course, Belladonna has nasty side effects such as:
chmod ugo-rwx/dev/vagus
I don't think that any music visualization software yet devised can shut down any of the cranial nerves, but who knows?
sorry to all you Slashdotters who are getting distracted by our little sub-thread
First, the term psychedelic doesn't really mean anything, and it is pretty hard to define what exactly a psychedelic is.
That being said, there are plenty of legal 'psychedelics' although that doesn't mean that they are exactly safe or to everyone's taste.
There are about several million different species of plants, most crawling with various alkaloids, glycosides, aromatic oils, etc. Somewhere in some of them are psychedelic compounds. You just have to know where to look.
Dude...have you ever thought how much sattelites look like dragonflies? You know what would be cool? If geneticists or something, like, bred a gigantic dragonfly to be a sapcestation? With wings for solar panels!"
(Gurgles)
Whoa, what I have always thought, is, since, you know, those fs cost so much, why not just like, build them pout of Gold? And the wings could be diamond plated? Wouldn't that be cool?!?!?
(Gurgles)
Yeah dude, and we could run the whole thing off a nine volt battery!!!!
Too me,it seems that "teaching" someone to think is a bit of an oxymoron. Teaching seems to be a type of manipulation, no matter how well intentioned, seems to be be incompatable with the idea of indepedent thought.
That is, when you teach people to think, you are always going to teach them, in some subtle way, to think how(and by extension, what) to think. And thus you aren't teaching thought at all.
Slashdot Mirror
Remember to make sure that all of the blood is of it first, or you become unclean.
Qwest (the phone company) is currently one of the worlds largest DSL providers. Qwest (in a move that is of questionable legality) use their government regulated monopoly on phone services to push their non-regulated ISP business.
One of the big reasons that customers choose Qwest as an ISP for DSL is that they are told, either explicitly, or implicitly, by sales people, that this combinations of services is neccesary (which of course it is not).
With Qwest.net soon being part of MSN, it will lose one of its big selling points for DSL.
Also, DSL customers who were Qwest ISP customers will have to go back to making twice as many phone calls to get their DSL installed...both to Qwest to get the hardware installed, and to MSN to get the ISP side. In other words, Qwest is losing one of its big selling point (actually maybe the only one) - the ease of use from "bundled" services.
Two points:
Last time I checked, Qwest.net had all of their pop, DNS, /etc servers running BSD. What are the chances that MSFT is going to try to switch these over for propaganda purposes?
If they do, it might make Qwest service even more spotty...
That was my first response, years ago, when the WTO was first becoming the "Vietnam of our Generation". That there was no way to keep the world broken into provinces, so why try?
Well, the fact of the matter is that the WTO wants to brake down national borders, but only in certain ways for certain people.
I am perhaps more ignorant on this subject then I should be, but I have been told that (for example) the WTO is trying to make a law that makes it easier for business executives to cross national borders for business purposes, but it doesn't give that same protection to journalists, or political activists\observers. Now of course it could be argued that one is for business purposes and one is political, but realistically, some of those business executives are going to be spreading political influence, either directly or indirectly. So basically what the WTO is doing in this example is opening borders for some but not for others.
I don't buy the whole thing about the WTO being a human rights\free speech treaty. If people wanted a treaty to ensure human rights or free speech, why not just write a treaty ensuring those things instead of a treaty allowing corporations and goverments to sue other governments over health and safety laws? Because no one is going to sign the human rights treaty that hasn't already.
If we want a treaty that sets standards for fair exchange of information, money and people across borders, lets all get together and write that treaty, not let a few corporations and other 31337 people get together in secret and decide what these standards will be.
That is the last time I trust ispell to do my thinking for me!
You are right, though. I was meaning to edit that thing out of beta, but unfortuantly the temptation to show it off won over my modesty.
At least the Indymedia people don't have the $cientologists at their throats...
If anyone wants to read my childish, oversimplified overview of OS theory (since this post got so many responses, someone might be interested), it's at:
ursine.dyndns.org/~mnoelharris/brainlinux.html
Sorry, there is no spoon.
From my (admittedly) basic knowledge of OS theory, a shell pretty much takes the input\output from the kernel and then manipulates it.
But in all ways that Windows works, a certain set of programs takes the input\output from kernel32.dll and works with it...or is it possible to place a program not made by Microsoft on top of kernel32.dll? Or is the Windows port of tcsh not a real shell as such, but just a text manipulating application that looks like a shell, that requires the Windows shell to pass it information?
I guess the (off-topic) question could be, what is the real difference between a shell and an application that looks like a shell?
The Illuminati. they disguise themselves as the religious right and the corporations when they feel like it, and disguise themselves as liberal, forward looking social engineering government employees when that suits them.
Of course, I seriously doubt that there is a way that hotmail could screen to see if someone is in Maryland, and even if they could, they would not exclude them from using their sercices.
But still, if I use hotmail, and the computer I am using it in is in Maryland, does that count? After all, the computer in Maryland is just a device to edit an html page on a server in California. How can the law stop me from using that computer for that purpose?
How can anyone say what the exact geographical location of an internet transaction? Is it where the client and server computers are located? Is it where the backbone and routers are located? Or is it where the individuals and corporations involved have their legal residencies?
So many questions...Yet another story on Slashdot that shows that Slashdot is turning into all-stoner news.
(Gurgles)So, dude, do you ever think about like, how wasteful cities are? Like, all those cities spread out, like, messing up the nature and stuff.
yeah, thats a total bummer dude. like, rats, and beavers and stuff need homes to
(Gurgles)Anyway, like, what if we built like a building that was , like, a mile tall? And then we could, like, fill it up with Chinese! and they would be able to chill there and everything! They would have like, movie theaters and everything.
(Gurgles)What would be even cooler, is, if we like genetically engineered Chinese people to be, like 3 feet tall, so we could, fit, like, 7 as many people in!
Dude, and we could like, grow, them hydroponically and stuff!
(Gurgles)Yeah, and we could run the whole thing off a nine-volt battery!
The history of the 2nd half of the 20th century would be much different if MK-Ultra had confined themselves to marijuana
Most of the Fidel Castro assasination attempts seem to have come from a very whacked out mind, although it was probably something stronger then weed...it could be argued that the entire history of spying is based on the weird ideas that paranoid adrenalin junkies come up with to amuse themselves. But this is getting OT.
Despite the "war on drugs", it seems that our nations secret security forces still enjoy a bong hit of their own.
dudes...you know what would be awesome??? Remember when we used to, like, fly rc airplanes? Can you imagine making a spy plane out of one of those?
(Gurgles)Dude, is that shit laced? Your ideas are always so crazy!
(Gurgles)Yeah, that's what you said about fixing the Florida election...now back to my spyplane...we can run it all off a nine volt battery!
Well, please excuse me for saying I hope we see more of this guy.
With a UID of 854, it seems that he has probably been around for a while.
Also, the moderators might want to check out this guys comments before they moderate him...some of his comments from the past few weeks have been moderated about 15 times, half up and half down.
+5, Funny
I was going to argue this post, but now I realize how funny it is.
I hope this guy is planning on making more Slashdot posts.Paying 100,000 dollars wasn't that big of a punishment for these companies.
After all, say you go to a school yard, ask passing children about their personal lives, and then hand the information over to someone else.
You think a fine is the worst you will get?
Isn't CERT a government agency? Isn't it charging for updates somewhat akin to having to tip the fire department extra to get to your house before it burns down?
Dude, have you ever thought about how wasteful batteries are? Like, why don't we like, build a PDA that runs on Solar Power? Because, like, its natural dude!
(Gurgling)You know what would be even cooler? If you could, like, have a button on the PDA that would order a pizza to your door any time, day or night!
(Gurgling)Dude, munchies over FTP would be 31337!!! If only I could remember my password...
Dude, you know what would be the coolest thing ever! If you could make a PDA into a BONG!!!
Yeah, and we could run the whole thing off a nine volt battery!!!
Stir away...your comment (and the ATPase inhibition in my system) has got me thinking...
What is the number one derivative effect that people get from music? Emotional affect, right? Music introduces us to many new emotional states. Can those emotional states be seen as copies of the music? How much longer after listening to a piece of music am I allowed to feel happy? Do I have to mail the Pixies' record company money for all those times I lifted up my spirits by humming "Wave of Mutilation"?
How bout if I do a little dance to the tune of the music? Do I have to get permission to do that? What if I am not encoding the rhythm of the song but instead just happen to be dancing what I am feeling?
anyone else want to think up any more ridiculous examples, be free to go ahead...
That's one of the ones that I was specifically thinking of... Of course, there are hundreds of others.
Belladonna is another one, that is also quite common growing ditchside in the continental United States. Of course, Belladonna has nasty side effects such as: /dev/vagus
chmod ugo-rwx
I don't think that any music visualization software yet devised can shut down any of the cranial nerves, but who knows?
sorry to all you Slashdotters who are getting distracted by our little sub-thread
First, the term psychedelic doesn't really mean anything, and it is pretty hard to define what exactly a psychedelic is.
That being said, there are plenty of legal 'psychedelics' although that doesn't mean that they are exactly safe or to everyone's taste.
There are about several million different species of plants, most crawling with various alkaloids, glycosides, aromatic oils, etc. Somewhere in some of them are psychedelic compounds. You just have to know where to look.
Dude...have you ever thought how much sattelites look like dragonflies? You know what would be cool? If geneticists or something, like, bred a gigantic dragonfly to be a sapcestation? With wings for solar panels!"
(Gurgles)Whoa, what I have always thought, is, since, you know, those fs cost so much, why not just like, build them pout of Gold? And the wings could be diamond plated? Wouldn't that be cool?!?!?
(Gurgles)Yeah dude, and we could run the whole thing off a nine volt battery!!!!
Too me,it seems that "teaching" someone to think is a bit of an oxymoron. Teaching seems to be a type of manipulation, no matter how well intentioned, seems to be be incompatable with the idea of indepedent thought.
That is, when you teach people to think, you are always going to teach them, in some subtle way, to think how(and by extension, what) to think. And thus you aren't teaching thought at all.