I personally am not so sure as you about whether or not violence in the media leads to violence in the real world, but let's assume that it does. What right does that give us to restrict access to violent videogames? The answer to societal problems is not increased govermental regulations. This can only lead to disaster. I mean, look at the tax code. Now if something as simple as taxation can be made so complex by the government, then imagine how impossible it would become if we relied on the government to regulate every aspect of our society! This example seems silly, but I think that it does make a point. The answer to societal problems (if there is an answer) is not to build up mountains of legislation. The answer is to attack the root of the problem: our society. Now everyone has their own opinion of what is wrong with our society, and that is a debate that I don't want to get into right now. But I think it is pretty obvious that the government simply doesn't have the power to stop the problems that we face. And if it did have that power, that would be a bad thing also, because then the government would have too much power... and absolute power corrupts absolutely...
(a) Violations Regarding Circumvention of Technological Measures. - (1)(A) No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. The prohibition contained in the preceding sentence shall take effect at the end of the 2-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this chapter.
Doesn't this mean that none of these laws come into play until next year? Does anyone want to help me out here?
I constantly hear about how one disadvantage of free (beer) software is that it doesn't have support, hence companies like RedHat and Linuxcare will offer that. Personally, I prefer the ldp to any commercial support I've ever recieved. Of course my experience is only with crappy consumer-level support, never with enterprise-level support, which I assume is much better. And if you are a programmer with a lot of time on your hands, like me, then source code is the best documentation there is.
"Sell Out?" What's the point of running open source software if it sucks? The IT guy who submitted this ask/. is obviously not interested in writing his own code, so what does it matter if he uses open or closed source software? Whatever works best, I say. Though with something like a VPN, open-source has the advantage of (usually) being more secure...
I like your new sig. A blatent example of this sort of thing is baby boomer politicians, most of whom have at least smoked a joint at one time in their lives. If cornered by the press about this, they waffle about how "everbody makes mistakes, etc." But then they turn around and propose harsher prison sentences on others who "make mistakes. *cough*GeorgeWBush*cough* I'm not a drug legalization fanatic, but this just pisses me off.
MD isn't deployed by a single company. Besides, how can you not prefer Jaz or even better, Orb drives to slow and comparatively small CD-RW drives? CD-RW is just a technologically inferior product. It is a clumsy hack, and the performence (especially the write performence) reflects this.
Your post's logic is flawed, because you anthropomorphize the collective entities, 'society' and 'political system.'(Sorry about the pretentious sounding sentence.) 'Society' is merely a collection of individuals. When viewed in that light, it seems to me, at least, that in fact the descisions made by the 'politcal system' (again, a collective entity -- descisions are made by individuals within that system, namely politicians, aides, and so forth) are not really affected by most individuals within 'society.' The only things that influence politicians are votes. To get votes, politicians need money. They get this from rich people, who then influence their descisions. Politicians are also influenced by the opinions of those who control votes. However, they have no way to get these opinions except via polls, and statistics. If you don't think that statistics lie, than read the book, "How to Lie with statistics." Well, that's my 2 cents.
Somewhat offtopic, but it just occured to me: one of the main issues in the Napster case is whether they are aiding those who are violating copyright, because obviously they themselves are not. The RIAA's argument, I believe, is that Napster's database of songs is illegal, because it contains songs that are copyrighted and is therefore a clear cut case of helping people to break the copyright laws. Now, even if Napster were to lose it's trial, the RIAA might have trouble shutting down Gnutella, which uses no central database. I mean, aside from the obvious impracticallity of trying to shut it down, there is also the legal difference between creating a piece of software which could theoretically be used to do something illegal (I mean, any compiler/telnet client _could_ be used to do something illegal) and maintaining a database of the locations of copyrighted songs, and letting people access that database.
This isn't gene splicing in the traditional sense, it is gene _creation._ Instead of mix 'n match genetic engineering, we will now be able to custom-design out own improved genes and add them on a whim.
Isn't it true that Orangatans (sp?) have genes that are 98% simpilar to humans? Couldn't this technique be used to turn them into humans? Just a thought...
The ask.com frames thing is actually pretty handy, I think. There is a button to get rid of the frames, and a button to go back to your question. It is really convenient for checking out multiple sites, instead of having to press the "back" button over and over again.
This is why we need cryptography. Why do you think that GSM is not common in the US? Because it has crypto that made it impossible to snoop on for Echlon (of course, it's been broken now, but hey...) Folks, encrypt your email and don't talk on the phone. Or at least don't say anything important on the phone. If everyone encrypts their email, than the governments and large companies that want to spy on us will drown in a sea of undescipherable information. On a related note: should we use PGP or GNUPG? GNUPG is GPL, but it has not been ported to any platforms other than Linux.
Um, you guys don't ask this much of -men-, why are you laying this crap on us girls?
Actually, this much has always been asked of men. There's no free lunch, and freedom from demeaning gender stereotypes and traditional roles for women means that you have to work for society in the same way that men always have. And it's not really any easier than housework or raising kids (well, maybe a little easier than raising kids.)
"Use the right tool for the job." If the job is composing an essay, than a computer word processor is better than paper an pen (IMO.) If the job is finding information, than all sources have advantages and disadvantages, the Internet included. But if the job is teaching, than no computer can replace a good teacher. Teaching children to use computers is a good thing. Using computers to teach children is not necessarily so good. In short, I disagree that computers are inherently bad for children, but agree that they are misused in today's educational system.
Intel has already introduced it's own low-power processors, but they aren't as low power as the Crusoe. They use about twice as much power. This seems like a lot, but it is actually only a couple watts... The crusoe has other features though... for instance, because of the hybrid hardware/software design, the chip can be updated... Maybe six months from now, intel laptop owners will become envious when they see headlines like "Software update improves Crusoe performence by 50%" Or maybe they will come out with something like "The end of the ISA wars? Crusoe processor now runs x86 and PowerPC code on the same chip!" The possibilities are limitless...
The pentium IV does not have the same core as the PPro. It is actually a completely redesigned core with several new features. Of course, until the processor is released, it's impossible to say, but I think that the Pentium IV will have significant performence gains on the P6 series (PPro - PIII) beyond mere clock speed increases.
You are very wrong in most of what you said about Intel. First, you complain that the Pentium is "bloated." That's true. But they haven't been wasting their time for the last decade working on it... Are you honestly arguing that a Pentium III at 1 Ghz is not significantly more advanced, and of course much faster, than a 386 (which didn't even have an FPU?) Then you demean the pentium IV without backing up your "it doesn't matter" attitude. It may or may not matter, but I prefer to wait until it is released before I decide. Then you make the claim the the G3 and G4 are somehow "technically superior." This is vague and untrue. The Pentium III is faster (in real world benchmarks) than the G3 and for many applications the G4, thanks to it's higher clock speed. How are they more technically advanced? They use less power... but they are desktop chips, so who cares? It is all about speed, and the pentium is faster! You deride AMD and Intel's pissing match for the fastest x86 processor... but the most important attribute a desktop processor can have is how fast it is! And you completely ignore the Itanium, which though it may turn out to be completely flawed, is at least an innovation! Certainly more than the G3, which is just yet another PPC processor!
Unfourtunately, I don't think that this will help DeCSS at all. The case against DeCSS (and it's inventor) has nothing to do with copyright infringement, but instead is filed under the DMCA, which states that breaking encryption is a crime (regardless of whether or not it has any repercussions, ie aiding piracy.)
Classes are _always_ wrappers for data. The reason you have to use the long declaration is because Java is a strongly typed language. Actually, many would argue that the problem with Java isn't the fact that the short way creates primitives, not objects, but that the problem is that the short way exists at all, and that primitives exist. I forget why the Java folks at sun decided to include the primitives instead of making them objects, but they had some rational...
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I personally am not so sure as you about whether or not violence in the media leads to violence in the real world, but let's assume that it does. What right does that give us to restrict access to violent videogames? The answer to societal problems is not increased govermental regulations. This can only lead to disaster. I mean, look at the tax code. Now if something as simple as taxation can be made so complex by the government, then imagine how impossible it would become if we relied on the government to regulate every aspect of our society! This example seems silly, but I think that it does make a point. The answer to societal problems (if there is an answer) is not to build up mountains of legislation. The answer is to attack the root of the problem: our society. Now everyone has their own opinion of what is wrong with our society, and that is a debate that I don't want to get into right now. But I think it is pretty obvious that the government simply doesn't have the power to stop the problems that we face. And if it did have that power, that would be a bad thing also, because then the government would have too much power... and absolute power corrupts absolutely...
I prefer more of the unbreakble BSD core to the "crunchy bsd core."
(a) Violations Regarding Circumvention of Technological Measures. - (1)(A) No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. The prohibition contained in the preceding sentence shall take effect at the end of the 2-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this chapter.
Doesn't this mean that none of these laws come into play until next year? Does anyone want to help me out here?
Aieee! once again we have unfounded anti-communist sentiment! IT'S NOT THE 50's ANYMORE!
Hentai TV? It probably exists in Japan... Nice point about the nudity vs. violence thing. Where is the Grammer Nazi when you need him?
I constantly hear about how one disadvantage of free (beer) software is that it doesn't have support, hence companies like RedHat and Linuxcare will offer that. Personally, I prefer the ldp to any commercial support I've ever recieved. Of course my experience is only with crappy consumer-level support, never with enterprise-level support, which I assume is much better. And if you are a programmer with a lot of time on your hands, like me, then source code is the best documentation there is.
"Sell Out?" What's the point of running open source software if it sucks? The IT guy who submitted this ask /. is obviously not interested in writing his own code, so what does it matter if he uses open or closed source software? Whatever works best, I say. Though with something like a VPN, open-source has the advantage of (usually) being more secure...
I like your new sig. A blatent example of this sort of thing is baby boomer politicians, most of whom have at least smoked a joint at one time in their lives. If cornered by the press about this, they waffle about how "everbody makes mistakes, etc." But then they turn around and propose harsher prison sentences on others who "make mistakes. *cough*GeorgeWBush*cough* I'm not a drug legalization fanatic, but this just pisses me off.
MD isn't deployed by a single company. Besides, how can you not prefer Jaz or even better, Orb drives to slow and comparatively small CD-RW drives? CD-RW is just a technologically inferior product. It is a clumsy hack, and the performence (especially the write performence) reflects this.
Write an extremely infectious virus that deletes Minesweeper and Solitare from all windows boxes. Now _that_ is service.
Your post's logic is flawed, because you anthropomorphize the collective entities, 'society' and 'political system.'(Sorry about the pretentious sounding sentence.) 'Society' is merely a collection of individuals. When viewed in that light, it seems to me, at least, that in fact the descisions made by the 'politcal system' (again, a collective entity -- descisions are made by individuals within that system, namely politicians, aides, and so forth) are not really affected by most individuals within 'society.' The only things that influence politicians are votes. To get votes, politicians need money. They get this from rich people, who then influence their descisions. Politicians are also influenced by the opinions of those who control votes. However, they have no way to get these opinions except via polls, and statistics. If you don't think that statistics lie, than read the book, "How to Lie with statistics." Well, that's my 2 cents.
Somewhat offtopic, but it just occured to me: one of the main issues in the Napster case is whether they are aiding those who are violating copyright, because obviously they themselves are not. The RIAA's argument, I believe, is that Napster's database of songs is illegal, because it contains songs that are copyrighted and is therefore a clear cut case of helping people to break the copyright laws. Now, even if Napster were to lose it's trial, the RIAA might have trouble shutting down Gnutella, which uses no central database. I mean, aside from the obvious impracticallity of trying to shut it down, there is also the legal difference between creating a piece of software which could theoretically be used to do something illegal (I mean, any compiler/telnet client _could_ be used to do something illegal) and maintaining a database of the locations of copyrighted songs, and letting people access that database.
This isn't gene splicing in the traditional sense, it is gene _creation._ Instead of mix 'n match genetic engineering, we will now be able to custom-design out own improved genes and add them on a whim.
Isn't it true that Orangatans (sp?) have genes that are 98% simpilar to humans? Couldn't this technique be used to turn them into humans? Just a thought...
The ask.com frames thing is actually pretty handy, I think. There is a button to get rid of the frames, and a button to go back to your question. It is really convenient for checking out multiple sites, instead of having to press the "back" button over and over again.
DVD stands for Digital Versitile Disk. But I guess you knew that... what was the point of the "feel free to flame comment?"
This is why we need cryptography. Why do you think that GSM is not common in the US? Because it has crypto that made it impossible to snoop on for Echlon (of course, it's been broken now, but hey...) Folks, encrypt your email and don't talk on the phone. Or at least don't say anything important on the phone. If everyone encrypts their email, than the governments and large companies that want to spy on us will drown in a sea of undescipherable information. On a related note: should we use PGP or GNUPG? GNUPG is GPL, but it has not been ported to any platforms other than Linux.
Have you forsaken the BeOS? Or are you not the same poster who's sig used to be "/.ing for the BeOS?"
Um, you guys don't ask this much of -men-, why are you laying this crap on us girls?
Actually, this much has always been asked of men. There's no free lunch, and freedom from demeaning gender stereotypes and traditional roles for women means that you have to work for society in the same way that men always have. And it's not really any easier than housework or raising kids (well, maybe a little easier than raising kids.)
"Use the right tool for the job." If the job is composing an essay, than a computer word processor is better than paper an pen (IMO.) If the job is finding information, than all sources have advantages and disadvantages, the Internet included. But if the job is teaching, than no computer can replace a good teacher. Teaching children to use computers is a good thing. Using computers to teach children is not necessarily so good. In short, I disagree that computers are inherently bad for children, but agree that they are misused in today's educational system.
Intel has already introduced it's own low-power processors, but they aren't as low power as the Crusoe. They use about twice as much power. This seems like a lot, but it is actually only a couple watts... The crusoe has other features though... for instance, because of the hybrid hardware/software design, the chip can be updated... Maybe six months from now, intel laptop owners will become envious when they see headlines like "Software update improves Crusoe performence by 50%" Or maybe they will come out with something like "The end of the ISA wars? Crusoe processor now runs x86 and PowerPC code on the same chip!" The possibilities are limitless...
The pentium IV does not have the same core as the PPro. It is actually a completely redesigned core with several new features. Of course, until the processor is released, it's impossible to say, but I think that the Pentium IV will have significant performence gains on the P6 series (PPro - PIII) beyond mere clock speed increases.
You are very wrong in most of what you said about Intel. First, you complain that the Pentium is "bloated." That's true. But they haven't been wasting their time for the last decade working on it... Are you honestly arguing that a Pentium III at 1 Ghz is not significantly more advanced, and of course much faster, than a 386 (which didn't even have an FPU?) Then you demean the pentium IV without backing up your "it doesn't matter" attitude. It may or may not matter, but I prefer to wait until it is released before I decide. Then you make the claim the the G3 and G4 are somehow "technically superior." This is vague and untrue. The Pentium III is faster (in real world benchmarks) than the G3 and for many applications the G4, thanks to it's higher clock speed. How are they more technically advanced? They use less power... but they are desktop chips, so who cares? It is all about speed, and the pentium is faster! You deride AMD and Intel's pissing match for the fastest x86 processor... but the most important attribute a desktop processor can have is how fast it is! And you completely ignore the Itanium, which though it may turn out to be completely flawed, is at least an innovation! Certainly more than the G3, which is just yet another PPC processor!
Unfourtunately, I don't think that this will help DeCSS at all. The case against DeCSS (and it's inventor) has nothing to do with copyright infringement, but instead is filed under the DMCA, which states that breaking encryption is a crime (regardless of whether or not it has any repercussions, ie aiding piracy.)
Classes are _always_ wrappers for data. The reason you have to use the long declaration is because Java is a strongly typed language. Actually, many would argue that the problem with Java isn't the fact that the short way creates primitives, not objects, but that the problem is that the short way exists at all, and that primitives exist. I forget why the Java folks at sun decided to include the primitives instead of making them objects, but they had some rational...