I have heard that the UNofficial Soviet policy on terrorism was this: if a Soviet was held hostage somewhere, the KGB would catch someone from the bad guy's organization... and send him back to his buddies in a series of small boxes.
Violence needs to be countered with overwhelming violence. No half measures.
I just installed my DSL modem from Covad/Speakeasy today. It rules. I had to sacrifice my stupid fast ATT@Home (Seattle) downloads though (400k/sec from a good server). I'm down to 150k/sec downloads now, which is certainly tolerable. My upstream has increased from 9-13k/sec to about 40k/sec, which is damn nice, because I run my small biz website from my home. Plus some hobby sites, and friends' sites, and a charity site... I have like 8 domains running out of here, and 2000 pageviews a day.
The best news is Speakeasy has a policy of allowing servers for residential customers. I asked some pointed questions about my needs (fixed IP, 100MB+ per day upstream from my web server, use of my own email and ftp servers) and they were FINE WITH ALL OF IT.
It is more expensive, yes, but it gives me a warm cozy feeling I never had from ATT, since I was running all these servers in violation of the TOS, and on a slow upstream connection.
Oh, the installation was totally painless too. Covad hooked the stuff up on their end, mailed me a modem, and it just WORKED. I couldn't believe it.
Of course, YMMV... but so far I am totally delighted with Speakeasy.
This last battery was a lithium-ion job. And it was almost never used. It still crapped out as fast as any other rechargeable I have used -- and I babied them too. I'd never recharge until the battery was drained and all that good stuff. It didn't seem to make a difference. Just my luck, I guess.
When police hassle me they have and will receive severe verbal abuse. I call the cocksuckers everything in the book.
While that may make you feel better temporarily, it sure isn't going to help your situation.
"Bob, you better get to that guy in holding cell 3... he was really upset."
"Thanks, Tom. I wouldn't want to inconvenience a citizen."
Does that ever happen?
At least you are smart enough not to touch the cops. But yelling at them, even if they are in the wrong, only makes you look like an asshole to them. How can that help your situation?
Citizens at large are responsable for not voting the idiots out, but they have been duped by the propaganda, in part because their second rate education never taught them critical thinking.
None of this excuses those who choose to engage in violence, but most of the USERS and small time dealers (as opposed to the large suppliers) are more or less non-violent people who do society no harm.
Like I was saying, just because they are non-violent themselves doesn't mean they do no harm. Your actions do reach beyond your crack-smoking bedroom.
If we are going to place blame on the users, we will also each have to take the blame for buying petrolium products and funding years of bloody warfare in the Middle East.
I'm willing to admit the harm my various consumer habits cause. Are you, or do you just want to avoid responsibility?
The rechargeable battery in my laptop used to last about 2.5 hours. A year later, I get about 45 minutes out of it. Every laptop I have owned has been this way... batteries just crap out eventually. Laptop batteries are expensive too... I wonder how much Aibo's batteries will cost?
I used to live in California -- Santa Barbara even -- and I know for a fact that it is illegal to be without identification in that state. This law was passed in oh, about '92 or so. I remember it well because I went to UCSB at the time and I read it in the local paper. I was just coming into my political awareness at the time and reading about that law made a big impact on me.
I don't remember all the details, but if you cannot provide ID, the cops can hang on to you until they are satisfied as to who you are, even if that is all they are interested in. I do not recall if you could be additionally fined or jailed for the matter.
The only difference is now one guard can handle more cameras better.
Your example is inoffensive. The fear is the next step.
What happens when the policeman in the next building you visit is alerted that your mean speed between buildings was 72.5 MPH, a clear violation of the local speed limits?
Cameras as an aid to law enforcement aren't the real problem... it's the death of all privacy that this heralds.
This bit with the cameras, and to some extent the digital rights management crap, is part of a huge transition for human society. Live it up, kids; no civilization has been through this experience yet. This is genuinely NEW stuff our society is growing into. Technology is making possible the total death of privacy, *and* societal trends are criminalizing more of us in parallel with that. It's damn spooky if you think about it. It's also car-wreck interesting.
And if he resists... even if he used to be innocent, now he looking at some serious charges.
Never, ever resist! Only a moron fights with the cops. They are there to Take You In. Once you are Taken In, you can get things Cleared Up. Trying to expedite this in the field by attacking the police never helps. If you are in the right, it will come out. You can't rush that process with violence.
When was the last time you heard about a guy who got away from the cops by copping a big attitude, and yelling and being abusive? Never? Right, because it never happens that way. If you try it, you are apt to get a tune-up.
When the cops pick you up, just cooperate. Swallow your pride for a bit. I know it sucks, but it has to be that way. What if cops were pushovers, who let loud, angry people go? Things would be a hell of a lot worse. "Gee, Sarge, he SAID he didn't do it, and he was in a hurry... so I cut him loose."
You know how high schools teach kids about STDs and how to drive and all that? Part of that state-required class (well, it is state required in CA) should be Your Civil Rights and How To Deal With The Police. Those are both valuable things for people to know... most people will have a run-in with the law at some point, even if it's just a speeding ticket.
The cops are the only ones involved who act deceitfully. Everyone else is quite honestly either selling or buying drugs...
Horsefeathers. There are plenty of drug-related violent crimes. Some people steal to get the cash for their next fix. In some of these crimes, innocent people are hurt or killed. Rival criminal organizations fight, and plenty of violent crime happens that way.
Doing drugs in your home seems harmless to society as a whole, but only if you take the narrow view. When you look at the whole supply chain there is a terrible cost. Don't make all drug crime out to be victimless. It isn't.
When gangs go to war and start blowing each other away over some drug-dealing dispute, I could care less... except when innocent people get caught in the crossfire. And it does happen.
Hear this: if you buy drugs you contribute to the economy of violent crime. That kid on the evening news, that was hit by a stray bullet during some gang fight? Well, if you buy drugs in that city, there's a chance that you helped to kill him. You contributed to the underground economy. You keep the pusher on the street, that brings in the gang muscle, that gives free tastes to the schoolkids.
You can go on and say that The Establishment is causing the harm too, by making drugs illegal. Fine. That is a point I am willing to discuss. I think that legalization is a worthy topic. But don't try to make yourself or other drug users look blameless. The Man isn't causing all the problems. Drug users cause their share too. Have the balls to admit it.
If there's a third-world country out there that would like to become a tech powerhouse within 5 years, all they need to do is build a stable power grid, pass strong privacy and sane copyright and patent laws, and allow automatic citizenship to the immediate families of programmers and engineers. Prosperity will follow quickly.
But who will this country sell their goods to? If "bad" computers become illegal in the US, Canada, Europe and the rest of the world may not be far behind.
Of course there is more to the tech sector than home computers. If all the EE and CS people bug out they can make the next Cisco in Uganda or wherever. We'll still need routers to attach our neutered compters to.
Time to stockpile computer parts! I can see myself 15 years from now... nursing along an old 800MHz computer that I use for atrocities like cd copying.
I think the spirit of your letter is good, especially the last paragraph. But, IMHO, talking about Finnish students and that lye-nux thing is just going to confuse the fat old guy and whoever he has opening his mail. I think the major arguments boil down to this. (not in order)
1. This legislation would give a cartel of companies unprecedented control over our personal computers. No other consumer goods would be subject to such restrictions.
2. This law presumes that a computer owner is up to no good. It is anti-freedom and anti-American in every sense of the words. Many machines have illegal uses, but the legal uses outweigh them, so they remain available in an unmodified form. Computers should be no different.
3. If all computer hardware and software must conform to these new content control standards, it will severely curtain the availability of free software and low-cost hardware. Some freely-available computer software is used by some of our very largest corporations. Yahoo, for example, extensively uses computer software called "FreeBSD" that was developed collectively by a group of generous hobbyist programmers. [a gross oversimplification, but required I think. -IronChef] Such free software projects will become endangered unless the content control measures are freely available to implement.
4. Related to the above, there will surely be a cost to becoming compliant with these provisions. This cost will be a barrier for new companies who want to get involved in the computer hardware or software market. This will curtail our economic growth. No longer will a genius in a garage be able to write the next great piece of software -- instead, expensive legal issues will tie the innovator's hands. Again, this is anti-American.
5. Lastly and most importantly, the American people will rightly see this as Big Brother nosing into their homes and offices. Years from now, the passing of this law will be seen as a serious blow to our freedom, and those who supported it will be remembered as corporate lackeys rather than representatives of the people of the people. Talk to your constituents, not the companies, and you will understand.
Now I gotta go put all that into a proper letter myself.
Or the fact that the guy with fewer votes is "selected" president also means that your country is really working.
You don't know what you are talking about. The Electoral College was put in place for a reason. Ever hear of the "tyranny of the majority?" Without the EC that's what we'd have, and the 4 most populous states would be determining how things go for the whole country. The EC forces the candidates to be more moderate, trying to appeal to as many people as possible, rather than only the 51% that's the most up in arms about the topic of the day.
Far from being some kind of travesty, the EC is exquisitely designed and it prevents far more trouble than it causes.
I don't come on here and talk crap about your Parliament or Tribal Council or whatever the hell you use, so please spare us your opinion on our system.
I don't see how a network "by and for the people" can survive. It seems like any open access point that can be used anonymously is going to attract a bad element who will abuse it.
I would certainly never share wireless bandwidth with my neighborhood because I don't want the FBI to come knock on my door for what the punk kid down the street did via my wireless generosity. Screw that kid -- he can pay for his own ISP and go 0wn someone's unsecured server to stage his attacks from, in the time-honored tradition of his forefathers.
I had a similar issue. With me, times of great stress (ie the job, or the lack of the job...) will make my heart act up. You know that weird feeling when your heart flutters? Imagine that happening for a couple of seconds like 10-20 times a day. That's how I handle stress, and caffeine makes it much, much worse.
problem 2: it is in all kinds of tasty things I don't want to give up. (I LOVE Coke. A fresh 2L bottle of Coke at 34F, a lime and a chilled glass... Yum. I am 30 and I love Coke as much as any kid ever could.)
problem 3: I don't like the taste of decaf sodas.
problem 4: I can tolerate the taste of Diet Coke, but all NutraSweet drinks knock me out. A Diet Coke has as much of an effect on me as a beer. That's no good.
In the end, my drink of choice is iced tea. I love it. Most varieties have caffeine, but I would rather drink something with caffeine and no calories than something with calories and no caffiene. Don't want to get hugely fat.
There are some good decaf teas, too. Constant Comment decaf makes an excellent iced tea. That's what I drink at home most of the time, but I don't make caffiene avoidance a major part of my lifestyle.
I'm rambling. Need some caffiene.;)
Re:Not only is ASM not "portable" to other CPUs...
on
MenuetOS Debuts
·
· Score: 2
...so unless you're just trying to impress girls or something, assembly is best left to the half-dozen driver programmers on the planet who still need it...
But if you ARE trying to impress girls, WOW, I can't think of a better -- oh, wait. Nevermind. Someone already found a better way, a webserver coded in PostScript.
Slashdot Mirror
I have heard that the UNofficial Soviet policy on terrorism was this: if a Soviet was held hostage somewhere, the KGB would catch someone from the bad guy's organization... and send him back to his buddies in a series of small boxes.
Violence needs to be countered with overwhelming violence. No half measures.
Okay, they are effective. In the short term.
When was the last time we were attacked by Nazis or imperialist Japanese forces?
Sure looks like violence can be a long-term solution to me.
I just installed my DSL modem from Covad/Speakeasy today. It rules. I had to sacrifice my stupid fast ATT@Home (Seattle) downloads though (400k/sec from a good server). I'm down to 150k/sec downloads now, which is certainly tolerable. My upstream has increased from 9-13k/sec to about 40k/sec, which is damn nice, because I run my small biz website from my home. Plus some hobby sites, and friends' sites, and a charity site... I have like 8 domains running out of here, and 2000 pageviews a day.
The best news is Speakeasy has a policy of allowing servers for residential customers. I asked some pointed questions about my needs (fixed IP, 100MB+ per day upstream from my web server, use of my own email and ftp servers) and they were FINE WITH ALL OF IT.
It is more expensive, yes, but it gives me a warm cozy feeling I never had from ATT, since I was running all these servers in violation of the TOS, and on a slow upstream connection.
Oh, the installation was totally painless too. Covad hooked the stuff up on their end, mailed me a modem, and it just WORKED. I couldn't believe it.
Of course, YMMV... but so far I am totally delighted with Speakeasy.
When the corporations get their own militaries and have wars, I'll be scared.
Do oil mercenaries count?
1. Even if one company did own 75% of the media, watch/read/listen to the other 25%.
And if the other 25% is all owned by Giant Company #2?
I believe the oil companies routinely hire mercenaries to protect their operations in some crappy countries too.
(Yes, there really is a mercenary business!)
This last battery was a lithium-ion job. And it was almost never used. It still crapped out as fast as any other rechargeable I have used -- and I babied them too. I'd never recharge until the battery was drained and all that good stuff. It didn't seem to make a difference. Just my luck, I guess.
When police hassle me they have and will receive severe verbal abuse. I call the cocksuckers everything in the book.
While that may make you feel better temporarily, it sure isn't going to help your situation.
"Bob, you better get to that guy in holding cell 3... he was really upset."
"Thanks, Tom. I wouldn't want to inconvenience a citizen."
Does that ever happen?
At least you are smart enough not to touch the cops. But yelling at them, even if they are in the wrong, only makes you look like an asshole to them. How can that help your situation?
Citizens at large are responsable for not voting the idiots out, but they have been duped by the propaganda, in part because their second rate education never taught them critical thinking.
And THAT I can agree with!
None of this excuses those who choose to engage in violence, but most of the USERS and small time dealers (as opposed to the large suppliers) are more or less non-violent people who do society no harm.
Like I was saying, just because they are non-violent themselves doesn't mean they do no harm. Your actions do reach beyond your crack-smoking bedroom.
If we are going to place blame on the users, we will also each have to take the blame for buying petrolium products and funding years of bloody warfare in the Middle East.
I'm willing to admit the harm my various consumer habits cause. Are you, or do you just want to avoid responsibility?
The rechargeable battery in my laptop used to last about 2.5 hours. A year later, I get about 45 minutes out of it. Every laptop I have owned has been this way... batteries just crap out eventually. Laptop batteries are expensive too... I wonder how much Aibo's batteries will cost?
I used to live in California -- Santa Barbara even -- and I know for a fact that it is illegal to be without identification in that state. This law was passed in oh, about '92 or so. I remember it well because I went to UCSB at the time and I read it in the local paper. I was just coming into my political awareness at the time and reading about that law made a big impact on me.
I don't remember all the details, but if you cannot provide ID, the cops can hang on to you until they are satisfied as to who you are, even if that is all they are interested in. I do not recall if you could be additionally fined or jailed for the matter.
Glad I moved to Washington.
The only difference is now one guard can handle more cameras better.
Your example is inoffensive. The fear is the next step.
What happens when the policeman in the next building you visit is alerted that your mean speed between buildings was 72.5 MPH, a clear violation of the local speed limits?
Cameras as an aid to law enforcement aren't the real problem... it's the death of all privacy that this heralds.
This bit with the cameras, and to some extent the digital rights management crap, is part of a huge transition for human society. Live it up, kids; no civilization has been through this experience yet. This is genuinely NEW stuff our society is growing into. Technology is making possible the total death of privacy, *and* societal trends are criminalizing more of us in parallel with that. It's damn spooky if you think about it. It's also car-wreck interesting.
How, exactly, are you going to do this? Test everyone to see if they're a pedophile?
Wait 10 years and it won't seem so absurd. Well, it will still be absurd, but it will be happening anyway.
And if he resists... even if he used to be innocent, now he looking at some serious charges.
Never, ever resist! Only a moron fights with the cops. They are there to Take You In. Once you are Taken In, you can get things Cleared Up. Trying to expedite this in the field by attacking the police never helps. If you are in the right, it will come out. You can't rush that process with violence.
When was the last time you heard about a guy who got away from the cops by copping a big attitude, and yelling and being abusive? Never? Right, because it never happens that way. If you try it, you are apt to get a tune-up.
When the cops pick you up, just cooperate. Swallow your pride for a bit. I know it sucks, but it has to be that way. What if cops were pushovers, who let loud, angry people go? Things would be a hell of a lot worse. "Gee, Sarge, he SAID he didn't do it, and he was in a hurry... so I cut him loose."
You know how high schools teach kids about STDs and how to drive and all that? Part of that state-required class (well, it is state required in CA) should be Your Civil Rights and How To Deal With The Police. Those are both valuable things for people to know... most people will have a run-in with the law at some point, even if it's just a speeding ticket.
You have it exactly. And because the police can't always be there for me, I carry a gun underneath my Seattle flannel. "Refuse to be a victim."
The cops are the only ones involved who act deceitfully. Everyone else is quite honestly either selling or buying drugs...
Horsefeathers. There are plenty of drug-related violent crimes. Some people steal to get the cash for their next fix. In some of these crimes, innocent people are hurt or killed. Rival criminal organizations fight, and plenty of violent crime happens that way.
Doing drugs in your home seems harmless to society as a whole, but only if you take the narrow view. When you look at the whole supply chain there is a terrible cost. Don't make all drug crime out to be victimless. It isn't.
When gangs go to war and start blowing each other away over some drug-dealing dispute, I could care less... except when innocent people get caught in the crossfire. And it does happen.
Hear this: if you buy drugs you contribute to the economy of violent crime. That kid on the evening news, that was hit by a stray bullet during some gang fight? Well, if you buy drugs in that city, there's a chance that you helped to kill him. You contributed to the underground economy. You keep the pusher on the street, that brings in the gang muscle, that gives free tastes to the schoolkids.
You can go on and say that The Establishment is causing the harm too, by making drugs illegal. Fine. That is a point I am willing to discuss. I think that legalization is a worthy topic. But don't try to make yourself or other drug users look blameless. The Man isn't causing all the problems. Drug users cause their share too. Have the balls to admit it.
If there's a third-world country out there that would like to become a tech powerhouse within 5 years, all they need to do is build a stable power grid, pass strong privacy and sane copyright and patent laws, and allow automatic citizenship to the immediate families of programmers and engineers. Prosperity will follow quickly.
But who will this country sell their goods to? If "bad" computers become illegal in the US, Canada, Europe and the rest of the world may not be far behind.
Of course there is more to the tech sector than home computers. If all the EE and CS people bug out they can make the next Cisco in Uganda or wherever. We'll still need routers to attach our neutered compters to.
Time to stockpile computer parts! I can see myself 15 years from now... nursing along an old 800MHz computer that I use for atrocities like cd copying.
I think the spirit of your letter is good, especially the last paragraph. But, IMHO, talking about Finnish students and that lye-nux thing is just going to confuse the fat old guy and whoever he has opening his mail. I think the major arguments boil down to this. (not in order)
1. This legislation would give a cartel of companies unprecedented control over our personal computers. No other consumer goods would be subject to such restrictions.
2. This law presumes that a computer owner is up to no good. It is anti-freedom and anti-American in every sense of the words. Many machines have illegal uses, but the legal uses outweigh them, so they remain available in an unmodified form. Computers should be no different.
3. If all computer hardware and software must conform to these new content control standards, it will severely curtain the availability of free software and low-cost hardware. Some freely-available computer software is used by some of our very largest corporations. Yahoo, for example, extensively uses computer software called "FreeBSD" that was developed collectively by a group of generous hobbyist programmers. [a gross oversimplification, but required I think. -IronChef] Such free software projects will become endangered unless the content control measures are freely available to implement.
4. Related to the above, there will surely be a cost to becoming compliant with these provisions. This cost will be a barrier for new companies who want to get involved in the computer hardware or software market. This will curtail our economic growth. No longer will a genius in a garage be able to write the next great piece of software -- instead, expensive legal issues will tie the innovator's hands. Again, this is anti-American.
5. Lastly and most importantly, the American people will rightly see this as Big Brother nosing into their homes and offices. Years from now, the passing of this law will be seen as a serious blow to our freedom, and those who supported it will be remembered as corporate lackeys rather than representatives of the people of the people. Talk to your constituents, not the companies, and you will understand.
Now I gotta go put all that into a proper letter myself.
This stuff makes me spittin' mad.
Or the fact that the guy with fewer votes is "selected" president also means that your country is really working.
You don't know what you are talking about. The Electoral College was put in place for a reason. Ever hear of the "tyranny of the majority?" Without the EC that's what we'd have, and the 4 most populous states would be determining how things go for the whole country. The EC forces the candidates to be more moderate, trying to appeal to as many people as possible, rather than only the 51% that's the most up in arms about the topic of the day.
Far from being some kind of travesty, the EC is exquisitely designed and it prevents far more trouble than it causes.
I don't come on here and talk crap about your Parliament or Tribal Council or whatever the hell you use, so please spare us your opinion on our system.
I don't see how a network "by and for the people" can survive. It seems like any open access point that can be used anonymously is going to attract a bad element who will abuse it.
I would certainly never share wireless bandwidth with my neighborhood because I don't want the FBI to come knock on my door for what the punk kid down the street did via my wireless generosity. Screw that kid -- he can pay for his own ISP and go 0wn someone's unsecured server to stage his attacks from, in the time-honored tradition of his forefathers.
I had a similar issue. With me, times of great stress (ie the job, or the lack of the job...) will make my heart act up. You know that weird feeling when your heart flutters? Imagine that happening for a couple of seconds like 10-20 times a day. That's how I handle stress, and caffeine makes it much, much worse.
I have given up on trying to cut out caffeine.
problem 1: it is everywhere.
problem 2: it is in all kinds of tasty things I don't want to give up. (I LOVE Coke. A fresh 2L bottle of Coke at 34F, a lime and a chilled glass... Yum. I am 30 and I love Coke as much as any kid ever could.)
problem 3: I don't like the taste of decaf sodas.
problem 4: I can tolerate the taste of Diet Coke, but all NutraSweet drinks knock me out. A Diet Coke has as much of an effect on me as a beer. That's no good.
In the end, my drink of choice is iced tea. I love it. Most varieties have caffeine, but I would rather drink something with caffeine and no calories than something with calories and no caffiene. Don't want to get hugely fat.
There are some good decaf teas, too. Constant Comment decaf makes an excellent iced tea. That's what I drink at home most of the time, but I don't make caffiene avoidance a major part of my lifestyle.
I'm rambling. Need some caffiene.
...so unless you're just trying to impress girls or something, assembly is best left to the half-dozen driver programmers on the planet who still need it...
But if you ARE trying to impress girls, WOW, I can't think of a better -- oh, wait. Nevermind. Someone already found a better way, a webserver coded in PostScript.
But I suppose this is also a problem with laptop hardware, which will always have the same image on the screen as on the output connector.
I don't know about Wintel laptops but most Mac laptops can drive an external monitor with a different signal than the LCD. I do it all the time.