I just searched some "sexual health" questions two days ago and found so much advice it was sickening. I laughed because it seemed like every advice site out there wanted to assure a girls *insert female part* was fine and dandy.
So either every site I looked at was outside the US, they aren't enforcing the law, or they let alone all the non-porn sites that educate.
"The Reader Question is by no means scientific; we solicit responses on InternetWeek.com and in the newsletter and make no effort to qualify respondents. QuickPolls are the Internet journalism equivalent of man-in-the-street interviews and call-in talk radio."
Have/. editors reached a new low in journalism? Is this even a news site or is no better than message board with links to discuss? And here I thought MS propagranda was bad but at least they have a financial motive. And before I felt proud I went to the same college. You guys should know better than to put this junk on your web page.
I thought the same way. An internet poll asking people if they are dissatisfied with the performance of their PC? What a shock:)
I think we all know that if we got everyone to switch over to linux it would be the same thing. Millions of idiots downloading spyware and trojans from kazaa and then complaining everything is going so slow or their computer doesn't boot. I recently went to a friend's house to get her PC back up and running and it was filled with viruses and spyware (from kazaa and email). Let's not forget typical bloatware with any pre-loaded PC.
Until we have an idiot proof society expect the masses to always claim new tech isn't reliable. But to me their opinion means nothing.
Indeed. We don't pay to listen to the radio. We won't pay to use Kazaa.
I have XM radio:) Its great except for the view ads they throw in. But the quality of the programming is worth it for people who have to drive more than 30min a day.
Didn't we just talk about opinions and facts? I won't believe your opinion any more than another person's opinion. And here is why I can't.
I was in studying in Scotland for a semester when 9/11 happened. A lot of the foreigner students (mostly german and french kids but very diverse) told me that invading Afghanistan was going to "create a 1,000 more bin ladens" and create many more 9/11 scenarios. They said diplomacy was the correct way to solve the problem and not war.
Was their opinion wrong or right about that war? So far they have been wrong as 1,000 more people smart and funded like bin laden haven't appeared. Could they be right in the end? Perhaps but only time will tell and time isn't on their side because memories, pain, and revenge are less likely over time.
Are you right about the war in Iraq and that it will cause more terrorist attacks in the US? Perhaps you are right and I am wrong. But unless something big happens in the next 12 months I doubt you will be right. I lived in MI, near Dearborn (the biggest Iraqi-American population I believe) where people danced in the street thanking Bush for taking down Saddam. So don't think its 100% chance you are right.
I respect your opinion...unless you got it off some leftist pamphlet with a few skewed facts.:)
If you were born in a western world and choose to not go to college then I believe you should not get a job paying you $20 an hour to sweep floors. Maybe you don't remember the morons in high school who only did drugs instead of their homework. Well 4 years of fun can bite you in the ass.
And luckily in America when you fuck up you don't starve. If you lived in FL or CA you would see thousands of fuck ups with no skills who are much fatter than I am. I don't know if the fuckups in China starve but in America they don't. In Europe I hear they get payed.
Yeah, I've seen his movies and read through some of his book. Opinions don't make people right. Not mine, yours, Michael Moore's or any other famous person not matter how entertaining or well spoken it is put. Only the facts show who is right in the end. So don't point to someone's opinion to prove a point.
This reminds me of how 8 months ago I sat through some of my professor's (at college) lectures about the Iraq war and this one history teacher told of three likely outcomes.
1.) The kurds taking advantage of the war and creating their own country in northern Iraq. 2.) Israel pushing out the Palenstineans in a mass exodus. 3.) Many more 9/11 scenerios because it would create more terrorists than it would kill.
Litterly hundreds of students hung on my genius professor's opinion as fact because he was smarter than them. They believed some of his WWIII outcomes and thought the mideast would crumble because of the war. Yet his opinion was not fact and in the end was nor more useful than some hotel maid's opinion of the war.
I will give you that Michael Moore is entertaining but frankly I would trust your opinion, a random slashdot responder, more than his. For I grew up near Flint and my grandpa was a GM worker so I know how the "poor" unions behave. My opinion: Its not the 1920s anymore and people should be payed based on their skills in the free market and NOT by blackmailing a huge company.
Writing in a book that Bush should be overthrown is protected by free speech. Organizing a group of people and saying they should rush into the White House and overthrow Bush is not protected free speech.
I think a web site that puts up its views is protected HOWEVER the second they start to organize a possible attack (like its members do) then its not free speech anymore.
Seem like the biggest target for any western hacker. A group dedicated to bombing civilians would be a fun hacking target. No law enforcement to punish you if you get caught and possibly helping fight the war on terror by disrupting online actions. At the very least I would enjoy a slashdotting of this sites for the time being.
As for privacy concerns, well if the Chinese government can't stop their people from getting to web sites and discussion boards with the help of the biggest US tech companies (Great Firewall of China) then I don't worry about the US's attempt of blocking me.
What a bad article from a totally biased opinion. Roblimo's "horrible" windows XP experience would be about as much fun if I switched all over to linux. The thing he didn't want to point out is that both OS's can work for anyone if they put the time into it. My personal question is if Linux can be installed on 90% of the computer and recognize every modem, sound card, and video card as well as Windows does. I have no clue so its a question and not a troll.
My experience on a SUN machine a couple years ago in college was not wonderful. I used it to program but when I downloaded an MP3 on my Sun work station, double clicked it, and nothing happened. WTF, same with movies. Someone pointed me to a mp3 player for the OS but I didn't know how to compile the code right.
My point is that both work if you know what you are doing. Roblimo's problems with IE are solved with a download of Opera or Avant (which provides tabs to IE if I am correct). I maybe get 1 spam a day with my outlook and none on my yahoo webmail account. I upgrade when MS puts out a patch and have never been hacked in the last decade even though I have a cable modem always on AND never used a firewall.
To each his own but since Windows XP doesn't crash like WinME I can only say I am happy to be a windows user. But I'm a gamer and need my fix:)
I have to agree 100%. For years the tech community grumbled to all their friends about the evils of the RIAA. Now the RIAA shot themself in their foot and the outcome is becoming more clear. No politician or people of power will stand with a company whose business model is so bad, so out of touch, that they sue their own customers as a business strategy.
What is their long term goal? Sue people for the next 20 years to always keep our online downloading in line? Its quite obvious they will either offer a competitive service or suffer the consequence in their profits.
"It faces tough competition, such as MPEG-4, RealVideo and Windows Media."
Are you kidding me? Who in their right mind would choose RealVideo unless it was for some specific video settings. RealVideo isn't a choice, it means your screwed. When I must see a RealVideo file, well just installing the thing and letting them try to corrupt my system makes me feel dirty.
No buts it a mutual relationship. College kids and people under 30 don't always get a house. So landlords need tenants and people who can't afford a house need an apartment (or its their parent's house/street).
I have heard some stories of landlords being scumbags but I am pretty sure that there are 10x more scumbag tenants (who skip out in the middle of the night) to the number of landlords who don't fix shit.
There should be a web site to swap landlord tales. My parents have 500 apartments and I have worked for them since I was a little kid. People would do the dumbest things. No pets in the lease yet call us up because they saw one spider. Suddenly a $25 fine hits them for the kitty cat. Or how about not paying rent but having tens of thousands of cocaine sitting in your living room. Now you go to jail for many years all because you didn't want to shell out a few hundred. Each landlord could write a book on their stupid tenants.
Had a cap of around 750megs a month. I could monitor it. Even excessive quake2 playing could really cost me if I wasn't careful. I think it was a few cents per meg after that.
This was 7-9 years ago too. So its nothing new to cap or charge extra for those 1% of the people that use up 60% of the bandwidth (or put in college stats)
Did this really need to be an Ask Slashdot? Besides a simple google search I am sure it isn't that hard to attract spam. Just put your email address out there. Message boards, Usenet groups, and send emails out to porn web pages (free pr0n!). I have a hard time believing that spam is hard to come by if you take 30min trying to attract it.
Its not like the US is hurting to put broadband in places that it will profit. But its hard to get IT spending during a recession into areas that may not be profitable for a long time.
The benefits of being tightly packed in means information can travel much quicker. Whether that is broadband, rumors, or viruses.
And I don't believe the Canada argument. 90% of Canada lives very close to the US border. ALSO, what the hell do people do in Canada for the 9 months of winter? Plus, Canada could be an outlier. I mean they have citizens who just returned weed!!! http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/americas/09/16/canad a.marijuana.ap/index.html
I know its great that a famous author is writing about this topic. His thoughts are clear, focused, and his point is strong. He shows the RIAA for what it is and shows why they are completely wrong. But here is something to keep in mind, what an analyst was saying on CNBC about the financial side, that the RIAA no longer cares about their public image. Their public image is right up there with Microsoft, so like Microsoft, they only are looking for profits.
Suing anyone and everyone is their tactic. If they get most people to stop sharing then they may be able to claim a short term victory. The only thing that can stop them in the US is if our Congress acts against them. Let's hope public image and voter sentiment makes copyright issues a more important topic in the next year. Otherwise it won't matter if a dozen mainstream authors and big artists come out.
"You're absolutely right. This poor single mom and her kid should not only have no internet access, she shouldn't have water or electricity either. That way taxpayers can save an average of a ten thousandth of a cent."
Its a double edged sword. My parents run apartments and we have minorities who pay $20 a month since its income based. The more money they make the more they pay rent. Why bother to add more work to your part time job? It was like back in the 80s when rich people paid 90% taxes on anything over a certain amount. Where's the motivation?
Also, remember welfare from the state can open a door for a poor child but that doesn't mean the child walks through it. Actually, the child most likely won't walk through the doors of college education if they grow up in a ghetto culture.However, its worth it if 1 out of 10 poor kids become a professional. At least we can say we tried.
"What is wrong with comments like: 'why just there? why can't we have this as well'? "
Its not so much "why just there" and "why can't we have this as well" but more of the "Iranians have freedoms we don't have."
Some ultra left people here are putting a spin on this and acting like Iranians are living it up with this one web site. The average middle aged male Iranian is getting orally raped everyday in terms of freedom and we throw them a breathmint. Lucky them.
"Only on Slashdot would someone immediately denounce a plan to give more freedom to oppressed Iranian citizens. "
And then a mod gives you a Flamebait.
LOL. This whole article should be "Great, my tax dollars are helping people under a horrible government to have freedom of information on the Internet." We are helping spread freedom in a tiny way.
Instead people post comments like "We have no freedom in the US" or "We need those tax dollars for the jobless."
Responses like "Such a small amount of money does not change a 10 trillion business cycle" or "You have no idea what living without freedom of speech or press is like." But I believe those responses would be wasted on people who think like that.
"Yes, but what about shitty games? You know, the ones that give you that sinking feeling when you realize that your impulse purchase was a mistake. Most of those don't get ported to the Mac."
Besides Blizzard titles how do you know if the game will be good or not? Its like movies, everyone wants their movie to be one of the top 10 of the year but that doesn't mean it will be. It takes lot of crap to finally get a great title. So do apple ports correctly predict which great titles are coming out and port them over? Should I only buy PC games that were ported?
Also, were the ports done at the same time or after the game rocked? I could wait a year on every game for the PC before I bought it to determine if it rocked or not but I prefer not to. Perhaps Mac buyers don't mind waiting for the ports but thats not hardcore gaming at all.
Were all those games released at the same time as the PC version or did you have to wait for a while? Last year's titles are on sale at Best Buy for $10-$20. Does the Mac get those great last year prices if the port takes longer? These are questions and not flames.
Slashdot Mirror
I just searched some "sexual health" questions two days ago and found so much advice it was sickening. I laughed because it seemed like every advice site out there wanted to assure a girls *insert female part* was fine and dandy.
So either every site I looked at was outside the US, they aren't enforcing the law, or they let alone all the non-porn sites that educate.
And my favorite quote:
/. editors reached a new low in journalism? Is this even a news site or is no better than message board with links to discuss? And here I thought MS propagranda was bad but at least they have a financial motive. And before I felt proud I went to the same college. You guys should know better than to put this junk on your web page.
"The Reader Question is by no means scientific; we solicit responses on InternetWeek.com and in the newsletter and make no effort to qualify respondents. QuickPolls are the Internet journalism equivalent of man-in-the-street interviews and call-in talk radio."
Have
I thought the same way. An internet poll asking people if they are dissatisfied with the performance of their PC? What a shock :)
I think we all know that if we got everyone to switch over to linux it would be the same thing. Millions of idiots downloading spyware and trojans from kazaa and then complaining everything is going so slow or their computer doesn't boot. I recently went to a friend's house to get her PC back up and running and it was filled with viruses and spyware (from kazaa and email). Let's not forget typical bloatware with any pre-loaded PC.
Until we have an idiot proof society expect the masses to always claim new tech isn't reliable. But to me their opinion means nothing.
Indeed. We don't pay to listen to the radio. We won't pay to use Kazaa.
:)
I have XM radio
Its great except for the view ads they throw in. But the quality of the programming is worth it for people who have to drive more than 30min a day.
Didn't we just talk about opinions and facts? I won't believe your opinion any more than another person's opinion. And here is why I can't.
:)
I was in studying in Scotland for a semester when 9/11 happened. A lot of the foreigner students (mostly german and french kids but very diverse) told me that invading Afghanistan was going to "create a 1,000 more bin ladens" and create many more 9/11 scenarios. They said diplomacy was the correct way to solve the problem and not war.
Was their opinion wrong or right about that war? So far they have been wrong as 1,000 more people smart and funded like bin laden haven't appeared. Could they be right in the end? Perhaps but only time will tell and time isn't on their side because memories, pain, and revenge are less likely over time.
Are you right about the war in Iraq and that it will cause more terrorist attacks in the US? Perhaps you are right and I am wrong. But unless something big happens in the next 12 months I doubt you will be right. I lived in MI, near Dearborn (the biggest Iraqi-American population I believe) where people danced in the street thanking Bush for taking down Saddam. So don't think its 100% chance you are right.
I respect your opinion...unless you got it off some leftist pamphlet with a few skewed facts.
If you were born in a western world and choose to not go to college then I believe you should not get a job paying you $20 an hour to sweep floors. Maybe you don't remember the morons in high school who only did drugs instead of their homework. Well 4 years of fun can bite you in the ass.
And luckily in America when you fuck up you don't starve. If you lived in FL or CA you would see thousands of fuck ups with no skills who are much fatter than I am. I don't know if the fuckups in China starve but in America they don't. In Europe I hear they get payed.
Yeah, I've seen his movies and read through some of his book. Opinions don't make people right. Not mine, yours, Michael Moore's or any other famous person not matter how entertaining or well spoken it is put. Only the facts show who is right in the end. So don't point to someone's opinion to prove a point.
This reminds me of how 8 months ago I sat through some of my professor's (at college) lectures about the Iraq war and this one history teacher told of three likely outcomes.
1.) The kurds taking advantage of the war and creating their own country in northern Iraq.
2.) Israel pushing out the Palenstineans in a mass exodus.
3.) Many more 9/11 scenerios because it would create more terrorists than it would kill.
Litterly hundreds of students hung on my genius professor's opinion as fact because he was smarter than them. They believed some of his WWIII outcomes and thought the mideast would crumble because of the war. Yet his opinion was not fact and in the end was nor more useful than some hotel maid's opinion of the war.
I will give you that Michael Moore is entertaining but frankly I would trust your opinion, a random slashdot responder, more than his. For I grew up near Flint and my grandpa was a GM worker so I know how the "poor" unions behave. My opinion: Its not the 1920s anymore and people should be payed based on their skills in the free market and NOT by blackmailing a huge company.
Writing in a book that Bush should be overthrown is protected by free speech. Organizing a group of people and saying they should rush into the White House and overthrow Bush is not protected free speech.
I think a web site that puts up its views is protected HOWEVER the second they start to organize a possible attack (like its members do) then its not free speech anymore.
Seem like the biggest target for any western hacker. A group dedicated to bombing civilians would be a fun hacking target. No law enforcement to punish you if you get caught and possibly helping fight the war on terror by disrupting online actions. At the very least I would enjoy a slashdotting of this sites for the time being.
As for privacy concerns, well if the Chinese government can't stop their people from getting to web sites and discussion boards with the help of the biggest US tech companies (Great Firewall of China) then I don't worry about the US's attempt of blocking me.
http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?id=8658464
A guy who could sum up this BS better than I could.
What a bad article from a totally biased opinion. Roblimo's "horrible" windows XP experience would be about as much fun if I switched all over to linux. The thing he didn't want to point out is that both OS's can work for anyone if they put the time into it. My personal question is if Linux can be installed on 90% of the computer and recognize every modem, sound card, and video card as well as Windows does. I have no clue so its a question and not a troll.
:)
My experience on a SUN machine a couple years ago in college was not wonderful. I used it to program but when I downloaded an MP3 on my Sun work station, double clicked it, and nothing happened. WTF, same with movies. Someone pointed me to a mp3 player for the OS but I didn't know how to compile the code right.
My point is that both work if you know what you are doing. Roblimo's problems with IE are solved with a download of Opera or Avant (which provides tabs to IE if I am correct). I maybe get 1 spam a day with my outlook and none on my yahoo webmail account. I upgrade when MS puts out a patch and have never been hacked in the last decade even though I have a cable modem always on AND never used a firewall.
To each his own but since Windows XP doesn't crash like WinME I can only say I am happy to be a windows user. But I'm a gamer and need my fix
I have to agree 100%. For years the tech community grumbled to all their friends about the evils of the RIAA. Now the RIAA shot themself in their foot and the outcome is becoming more clear. No politician or people of power will stand with a company whose business model is so bad, so out of touch, that they sue their own customers as a business strategy.
What is their long term goal? Sue people for the next 20 years to always keep our online downloading in line? Its quite obvious they will either offer a competitive service or suffer the consequence in their profits.
I called Rocca and asked him to hold for an important message. But its his home phone where his family lives so I felt like I sunk to his level.
"It faces tough competition, such as MPEG-4, RealVideo and Windows Media."
Are you kidding me? Who in their right mind would choose RealVideo unless it was for some specific video settings. RealVideo isn't a choice, it means your screwed. When I must see a RealVideo file, well just installing the thing and letting them try to corrupt my system makes me feel dirty.
No buts it a mutual relationship. College kids and people under 30 don't always get a house. So landlords need tenants and people who can't afford a house need an apartment (or its their parent's house/street).
I have heard some stories of landlords being scumbags but I am pretty sure that there are 10x more scumbag tenants (who skip out in the middle of the night) to the number of landlords who don't fix shit.
There should be a web site to swap landlord tales. My parents have 500 apartments and I have worked for them since I was a little kid. People would do the dumbest things. No pets in the lease yet call us up because they saw one spider. Suddenly a $25 fine hits them for the kitty cat. Or how about not paying rent but having tens of thousands of cocaine sitting in your living room. Now you go to jail for many years all because you didn't want to shell out a few hundred. Each landlord could write a book on their stupid tenants.
Had a cap of around 750megs a month. I could monitor it. Even excessive quake2 playing could really cost me if I wasn't careful. I think it was a few cents per meg after that.
This was 7-9 years ago too. So its nothing new to cap or charge extra for those 1% of the people that use up 60% of the bandwidth (or put in college stats)
Did this really need to be an Ask Slashdot? Besides a simple google search I am sure it isn't that hard to attract spam. Just put your email address out there. Message boards, Usenet groups, and send emails out to porn web pages (free pr0n!). I have a hard time believing that spam is hard to come by if you take 30min trying to attract it.
Its not like the US is hurting to put broadband in places that it will profit. But its hard to get IT spending during a recession into areas that may not be profitable for a long time.
d a.marijuana.ap/index.html
The benefits of being tightly packed in means information can travel much quicker. Whether that is broadband, rumors, or viruses.
And I don't believe the Canada argument. 90% of Canada lives very close to the US border. ALSO, what the hell do people do in Canada for the 9 months of winter? Plus, Canada could be an outlier. I mean they have citizens who just returned weed!!! http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/americas/09/16/cana
I know its great that a famous author is writing about this topic. His thoughts are clear, focused, and his point is strong. He shows the RIAA for what it is and shows why they are completely wrong. But here is something to keep in mind, what an analyst was saying on CNBC about the financial side, that the RIAA no longer cares about their public image. Their public image is right up there with Microsoft, so like Microsoft, they only are looking for profits.
Suing anyone and everyone is their tactic. If they get most people to stop sharing then they may be able to claim a short term victory. The only thing that can stop them in the US is if our Congress acts against them. Let's hope public image and voter sentiment makes copyright issues a more important topic in the next year. Otherwise it won't matter if a dozen mainstream authors and big artists come out.
Here's hoping.
"You're absolutely right. This poor single mom and her kid should not only have no internet access, she shouldn't have water or electricity either. That way taxpayers can save an average of a ten thousandth of a cent."
Its a double edged sword. My parents run apartments and we have minorities who pay $20 a month since its income based. The more money they make the more they pay rent. Why bother to add more work to your part time job? It was like back in the 80s when rich people paid 90% taxes on anything over a certain amount. Where's the motivation?
Also, remember welfare from the state can open a door for a poor child but that doesn't mean the child walks through it. Actually, the child most likely won't walk through the doors of college education if they grow up in a ghetto culture.However, its worth it if 1 out of 10 poor kids become a professional. At least we can say we tried.
"What is wrong with comments like: 'why just there? why can't we have this as well'? "
Its not so much "why just there" and "why can't we have this as well" but more of the "Iranians have freedoms we don't have."
Some ultra left people here are putting a spin on this and acting like Iranians are living it up with this one web site. The average middle aged male Iranian is getting orally raped everyday in terms of freedom and we throw them a breathmint. Lucky them.
"Only on Slashdot would someone immediately denounce a plan to give more freedom to oppressed Iranian citizens. "
And then a mod gives you a Flamebait.
LOL. This whole article should be "Great, my tax dollars are helping people under a horrible government to have freedom of information on the Internet." We are helping spread freedom in a tiny way.
Instead people post comments like "We have no freedom in the US" or "We need those tax dollars for the jobless."
Responses like "Such a small amount of money does not change a 10 trillion business cycle" or "You have no idea what living without freedom of speech or press is like." But I believe those responses would be wasted on people who think like that.
"Yes, but what about shitty games? You know, the ones that give you that sinking feeling when you realize that your impulse purchase was a mistake. Most of those don't get ported to the Mac."
Besides Blizzard titles how do you know if the game will be good or not? Its like movies, everyone wants their movie to be one of the top 10 of the year but that doesn't mean it will be. It takes lot of crap to finally get a great title. So do apple ports correctly predict which great titles are coming out and port them over? Should I only buy PC games that were ported?
Also, were the ports done at the same time or after the game rocked? I could wait a year on every game for the PC before I bought it to determine if it rocked or not but I prefer not to. Perhaps Mac buyers don't mind waiting for the ports but thats not hardcore gaming at all.
Were all those games released at the same time as the PC version or did you have to wait for a while? Last year's titles are on sale at Best Buy for $10-$20. Does the Mac get those great last year prices if the port takes longer? These are questions and not flames.