It never ceases to amaze me that M$ proclaims that the GPL is "viral". Consider what kind of virus would attach to an open source developer, if he/she were ever to get a gander at some of M$'s "shared source" code?
That developer would effectively be forever forbidden from working on public project. The burden of proving that he didn't use any of M$'s code would fall on him/her. With M$'s history, if that developer's company had an license, even though he/she didn't look at the code, the developer would probably forever have to prove that he didn't look at the code!
But if MS tried to sue someone over this, then the MS might have to disclose its source code to the defendant as part of the litigation discovery. I don't think they'd like that!
this sounds exactly like heroin abuse to me. and (i add gratuitiously) this is not a flame, just trying to spark a
little discussion. how addictive are games, and if games are legal, why aren't drugs?
Because most of Western society loves machines, but fears chemistry and biology?
Folks, I'm sorry to moderate the enthusiasm of all the fans, but Iron Chef is a dramatically stupid and mediocre show. Culinary speaking, it's nothing more than a mix of mediocrity, ignorance, and sensationalism.
Wow -- Iron Chef isn't about real haute cuisine? Thanks for the news flash. Next you'll inform us that The Lone Gunmen wasn't about real computer hacking and investigative journalism.
Iron Chef is an entertaining program. If you're sharp enough not to take it too seriously.
You're both right; you're talking about 2 different lines, Ota's and Kaga's.
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WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
Re:Ridiculous? Maybe so, but it doesn't make it ri
on
Who Owns Your Culture?
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· Score: 1
but where does *education of children* fit into this discussion of intellectual property? lego has done something good, in my opinion - they've created something at least *vaguely* culturally accurate to portray a Maori or Polynesian group.
Pretty darn "vague," if you ask me. Unless the Maori really are bignasty elemental-robotic dudes who come from meteorites?
My son got a Lego "Bionicle" comic recently, and I read it. It was clear to me that they took some words and "sounds" from Polynesian languages and maybe some cultural ideas such as the power and importance of masks, but all in all Bionicle is an all-out science fiction/fantasy. It's about as closely connected with Polynesian culture as Star Wars is with Medieval Europe or Taoism. I wouldn't call this any sort of portrayal of Maori or Polynesian culture.
There is more insightfulness and depth in a single Clamp story than there is in all of Evangelion put together.
If you're including Clamp School Detectives in this, then you're a lot better at finding depth than I am...
But seriously: CLAMP does rock, but so I think does Eva. Even if your summary of Eva were accurate, I could write an equally dismissive plot summary of Hamlet, Don Quixote, or any great work you care to mention.
Plots are useful, but the magic of a story is in the telling.
6. I have been into anime so much longer than any of you, and I know sixteen whole phrases in Japanese, so I think you're all clueless idiots who are ruining it for us Real Fans.
I don't yet have a good response to those kinds of posts, but I sure am tired of them.
(And though I don't want to sound like the kind of jerk I'm talking about above, you might be interested to know that "otaku" is more of a general term for any kind of obsessive geek. In addition to anime otaku, there are video game otaku, military hardware otaku, idol singer otaku, tropical fish otaku...and, of course, computer otaku. Like folks who are up at 2am posting to Slashdot...)
If by "properly" you mean "to those who are desperate to retain a sense of coolness now that anime is growing popular," I guess you're right. We're all so impressed that you know the Japanese title.
Gainax seems fine with the title translation Neon Genesis Evangelion, so that seems "proper" enough for me. In English, at least. Which, near as I can tell, is the language of this conversation.
It's pretty late, and maybe I'm just cranky, but I have little patience for those who insist on belittling every fan who's gotten into anime recently. Hey, I've been an anime fan for many years too. If I feel the need, I'll pat myself on the back for being at the head of the wave. But mostly I'll just enjoy the fact that more fans means that more anime makes its way to the US.
BTW, if you liked "Luminous" (that's the one about the aquatic culture, isn't it?) then you should run out right now and buy his short story collection "Axiomatic".
You may be thinking of his story "Oceanic." "Luminous" featured a computer made of light, but was really "about" mathematics itself.
Re:Linus should have his own action-figure line
on
Linus Talks About 2.4
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· Score: 1
For the girls, there'd be Dream Date Linus in a
tuxedo with his pet penguin, Tux, on a leash.
This sounds like a sure-fire-hit shoujo manga. Then comes the anime series, and all the merchandising that goes with it. Action figures are just the beginning!
Wonderful! No more pesky FDA approval process! Now I can do what I've always wanted, get sick and then have completely untested
drugs injected into my body!
If you want someone to protect you, and make your decisions for you, I'm sure you can find someone willing. And you could probably afford it, without an income tax.
But why should I be forced to pay for "protections" such as a system which ensures that the only drugs made available are those that can be patented, to recoup the staggering cost of the FDA approval process?
You're assuming the generals would pass that order along, and the troops would follow it.
I doubt that either is true.
Well said. Everyone in the chain, from the President down to the grunt with the trigger finger, takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and therefore has a moral obligation to recognize and refuse orders which would violate this oath.
The Harkonnens: Less gross and more subtle than the ones in the Lynch film. This gives them a bit more character depth, in my opinion,
making them more interesting adversaries.
Indeed. I firmly think that one key to a great story is a great villain -- and the movie Dune blew that badly with Baron Harkonen. The miniseries is a bit better, but still misses the mark.
I never pictured Harkonen as a fat, crazy King Herod knockoff, as both the movie and miniseries directors seem to do. I saw him as a cunning, smart, ambitions political and military Player. One who happened to be very obese and maybe a little crazy, sure, but not to the extent that those traits defined him.
When reading the novel, I pictured the Baron as Orson Wells, in his wine-commercial days, walking around with an unnaturally light step in phenominally expensive suits.
Your argument shows just how out of touch with reality you are. It's tragic.
'Punishing people for creating wealth' is missing the point by a huge margin. People are being punished for _breaking the
law_. If they don't like the law, they can fuck off to some other country that has laws they do like.
Your argument shows that you should read a little more carefully. I specifically limited my comment about "punishing people for creating wealth" to the context of setting tax rates -- not setting criminal fines.
Should it work the same way for liability? If your tottering grandmother runs over a millionaire, should she be fined 500,000 to make
restitution for the victim's family, so they can maintain their standard of living?
Actually, I believe that kind of calculation can enter into the award in a wrongful death suit.
There are many that are for a "flat" tax and our current "flat" fine system. Unfortunatly, flat mean regressive. What a progressive tax and
fine system does is make the actual cost incurred by the person equal across economic classes.
I guess any idea can seem reasonable and fair if you get to redefine the word "actual."
To me, it seems that $100 actually equals $100. So $100 paid by Bill Gates is equal to $100 paid by me. The fact that it hurts me more than him doesn't change that.
"Progressive," in the context of setting tax rates, sounds to me like punishing people for creating wealth. If that's what you want to do, at least be clear about it.
The situation is a bit different for fines, since one of the goals is to deter crime, but I am still concerned about the idea. If you accept that punishment should be designed to "hurt" everyone to the same degree, then why not apply this to prison sentences as well? Should someone who doesn't have much of a worthwhile life outside prison have to stay in jail longer than someone with a job and a family?
Oh, wait, that's right -- the US already does something like this, with higher mandatory minimum sentences for poor people's cocaine (crack) than for rich peoples' cocaine (powder).
Establish immunity from credit card charges for sites classified as obscene.
The most this could do is bring our court system to a crashing halt, as thousands of lawsuits are brought to determine which sites are "obscene" and which are not. Pornography is not necessarily obscene, and if not obscene it's not illegal.
Enjoy Anime Expo, Taco -- and if you feel like a trip to Colorado, next year's Nan Desu Kan is scheduled for September 21-23, 2001. Registration info is here.
The biggest reaction I have to some of these stories about kids caught up in the Columbine aftermath is, Where are the parents of these students who are being treated unfairly by school administrators?
I'm a parent, with a child in elementary school, but I still sympathize with and understand the "geek kids" in these stories far more than I understand many of the ignorant and fearful adults out there. And if some principal ever gave my kid a choice like "give up D&D or be expelled," he'd have just a short time to either reverse that decision or be on the wrong end of a highly public lawsuit.
Just because a majority of my friends that I enjoy are on the internet doesn't mean that I shut out everyone around me (which my family
now believes). They just can't understand that when I go to family reunions, I don't want to talk about deer hunting, or college football, or
how Michelle drove the tractor for the first time. I want to talk about life, psychology, why we do the things we do, where we are all
going, and how to root a solaris box.
Judging by the way you talk about them, I too would infer that at you've shut out the people around you, at least partly.
If you really "want to talk about life, psychology, why we do the things we do, where we are all
going," why do you seem to have such contempt for the everyday events that are important to many people? Maybe Michelle driving the tractor for the first time meant a lot to her. Maybe deer hunting is important to Uncle Buddy. Is it really that hard to ask a polite question, listen attentively, and generally act like a decent human being? You just might learn something about "life, psychology, why we do the things we do, where we are all
going."
Slashdot Mirror
Well, have you ever watched StarGate SG1? Do you know of anyone who yells "McGyver!" every time Colonel O'Neal is on the screen?
No, but I did think "It's Mrs. Columbo!" half the time I saw Janeway on Voyager.
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
It never ceases to amaze me that M$ proclaims that the GPL is "viral". Consider what kind of virus would attach to an open source developer, if he/she were ever to get a gander at some of M$'s "shared source" code?
That developer would effectively be forever forbidden from working on public project. The burden of proving that he didn't use any of M$'s code would fall on him/her. With M$'s history, if that developer's company had an license, even though he/she didn't look at the code, the developer would probably forever have to prove that he didn't look at the code!
But if MS tried to sue someone over this, then the MS might have to disclose its source code to the defendant as part of the litigation discovery. I don't think they'd like that!
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
The MPAA does mean "commercial." As in, "You have no choice but the watch the commercials."
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
Because most of Western society loves machines, but fears chemistry and biology?
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
Folks, I'm sorry to moderate the enthusiasm of all the fans, but Iron Chef is a dramatically stupid and mediocre show. Culinary speaking, it's nothing more than a mix of mediocrity, ignorance, and sensationalism.
Wow -- Iron Chef isn't about real haute cuisine? Thanks for the news flash. Next you'll inform us that The Lone Gunmen wasn't about real computer hacking and investigative journalism.
Iron Chef is an entertaining program. If you're sharp enough not to take it too seriously.
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
You're both right; you're talking about 2 different lines, Ota's and Kaga's.
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
but where does *education of children* fit into this discussion of intellectual property? lego has done something good, in my opinion - they've created something at least *vaguely* culturally accurate to portray a Maori or Polynesian group.
Pretty darn "vague," if you ask me. Unless the Maori really are bignasty elemental-robotic dudes who come from meteorites?
My son got a Lego "Bionicle" comic recently, and I read it. It was clear to me that they took some words and "sounds" from Polynesian languages and maybe some cultural ideas such as the power and importance of masks, but all in all Bionicle is an all-out science fiction/fantasy. It's about as closely connected with Polynesian culture as Star Wars is with Medieval Europe or Taoism. I wouldn't call this any sort of portrayal of Maori or Polynesian culture.
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
Yep, it was indeed a blatant ripoff of your sig
Which in turn appears to be an unattributed quote from Hunter S. Thompson...
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
There is more insightfulness and depth in a single Clamp story than there is in all of Evangelion put together.
If you're including Clamp School Detectives in this, then you're a lot better at finding depth than I am...
But seriously: CLAMP does rock, but so I think does Eva. Even if your summary of Eva were accurate, I could write an equally dismissive plot summary of Hamlet, Don Quixote, or any great work you care to mention.
Plots are useful, but the magic of a story is in the telling.
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
Good list. Here's another entry:
I don't yet have a good response to those kinds of posts, but I sure am tired of them.
(And though I don't want to sound like the kind of jerk I'm talking about above, you might be interested to know that "otaku" is more of a general term for any kind of obsessive geek. In addition to anime otaku, there are video game otaku, military hardware otaku, idol singer otaku, tropical fish otaku...and, of course, computer otaku. Like folks who are up at 2am posting to Slashdot...)
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
"properly"?
If by "properly" you mean "to those who are desperate to retain a sense of coolness now that anime is growing popular," I guess you're right. We're all so impressed that you know the Japanese title.
Gainax seems fine with the title translation Neon Genesis Evangelion, so that seems "proper" enough for me. In English, at least. Which, near as I can tell, is the language of this conversation.
It's pretty late, and maybe I'm just cranky, but I have little patience for those who insist on belittling every fan who's gotten into anime recently. Hey, I've been an anime fan for many years too. If I feel the need, I'll pat myself on the back for being at the head of the wave. But mostly I'll just enjoy the fact that more fans means that more anime makes its way to the US.
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
BTW, if you liked "Luminous" (that's the one about the aquatic culture, isn't it?) then you should run out right now and buy his short story collection "Axiomatic".
You may be thinking of his story "Oceanic." "Luminous" featured a computer made of light, but was really "about" mathematics itself.
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
For the girls, there'd be Dream Date Linus in a tuxedo with his pet penguin, Tux, on a leash.
This sounds like a sure-fire-hit shoujo manga. Then comes the anime series, and all the merchandising that goes with it. Action figures are just the beginning!
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
If you want someone to protect you, and make your decisions for you, I'm sure you can find someone willing. And you could probably afford it, without an income tax.
But why should I be forced to pay for "protections" such as a system which ensures that the only drugs made available are those that can be patented, to recoup the staggering cost of the FDA approval process?
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
You're assuming the generals would pass that order along, and the troops would follow it.
I doubt that either is true.
Well said. Everyone in the chain, from the President down to the grunt with the trigger finger, takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and therefore has a moral obligation to recognize and refuse orders which would violate this oath.
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
Indeed. I firmly think that one key to a great story is a great villain -- and the movie Dune blew that badly with Baron Harkonen. The miniseries is a bit better, but still misses the mark.
I never pictured Harkonen as a fat, crazy King Herod knockoff, as both the movie and miniseries directors seem to do. I saw him as a cunning, smart, ambitions political and military Player. One who happened to be very obese and maybe a little crazy, sure, but not to the extent that those traits defined him.
When reading the novel, I pictured the Baron as Orson Wells, in his wine-commercial days, walking around with an unnaturally light step in phenominally expensive suits.
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
'Punishing people for creating wealth' is missing the point by a huge margin. People are being punished for _breaking the law_. If they don't like the law, they can fuck off to some other country that has laws they do like.
Your argument shows that you should read a little more carefully. I specifically limited my comment about "punishing people for creating wealth" to the context of setting tax rates -- not setting criminal fines.
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
Actually, I believe that kind of calculation can enter into the award in a wrongful death suit.
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
There are many that are for a "flat" tax and our current "flat" fine system. Unfortunatly, flat mean regressive. What a progressive tax and fine system does is make the actual cost incurred by the person equal across economic classes.
I guess any idea can seem reasonable and fair if you get to redefine the word "actual."
To me, it seems that $100 actually equals $100. So $100 paid by Bill Gates is equal to $100 paid by me. The fact that it hurts me more than him doesn't change that.
"Progressive," in the context of setting tax rates, sounds to me like punishing people for creating wealth. If that's what you want to do, at least be clear about it.
The situation is a bit different for fines, since one of the goals is to deter crime, but I am still concerned about the idea. If you accept that punishment should be designed to "hurt" everyone to the same degree, then why not apply this to prison sentences as well? Should someone who doesn't have much of a worthwhile life outside prison have to stay in jail longer than someone with a job and a family?
Oh, wait, that's right -- the US already does something like this, with higher mandatory minimum sentences for poor people's cocaine (crack) than for rich peoples' cocaine (powder).
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
The most this could do is bring our court system to a crashing halt, as thousands of lawsuits are brought to determine which sites are "obscene" and which are not. Pornography is not necessarily obscene, and if not obscene it's not illegal.
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
However, I like the fact that Hagelin is a scientist.
I think Feynman had a good point when he said that a scientist looking at a non-scientific problem was as stupid as anyone else.
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WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
Enjoy Anime Expo, Taco -- and if you feel like a trip to Colorado, next year's Nan Desu Kan is scheduled for September 21-23, 2001. Registration info is here.
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
The biggest reaction I have to some of these stories about kids caught up in the Columbine aftermath is, Where are the parents of these students who are being treated unfairly by school administrators?
I'm a parent, with a child in elementary school, but I still sympathize with and understand the "geek kids" in these stories far more than I understand many of the ignorant and fearful adults out there. And if some principal ever gave my kid a choice like "give up D&D or be expelled," he'd have just a short time to either reverse that decision or be on the wrong end of a highly public lawsuit.
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
Judging by the way you talk about them, I too would infer that at you've shut out the people around you, at least partly.
If you really "want to talk about life, psychology, why we do the things we do, where we are all going," why do you seem to have such contempt for the everyday events that are important to many people? Maybe Michelle driving the tractor for the first time meant a lot to her. Maybe deer hunting is important to Uncle Buddy. Is it really that hard to ask a polite question, listen attentively, and generally act like a decent human being? You just might learn something about "life, psychology, why we do the things we do, where we are all going."
--------------------
WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG
Here's a site devoted to news & discussion of Linux and Open Source medical software:
LinuxMedNews
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WWW.TETSUJIN.ORG