Oh my gosh, did terrorists use crypto? We'd better not let that happen again!
Hmm... I wonder if they used Windows?
You just know the sleazoids on the right will use this awful event as an excuse to step up surveillance, etc. A "strong response" will boost Bush in the polls. A wartime mentality is always good for conservative causes. Kiss social security good bye. New restrictions but, hey there's Free Cigarettes. Guns should be cheap and plentiful. And the constitution needed changing anyway.
The survey also found that 77.2 percent of the developers surveyed chose Red Hat Linux as the distribution for use with a Web server or Web application server. This is more than three times the 21.8 percent who selected SuSE Linux or Mandrake. Caldera OpenLinux and FreeBSD followed, with 21.4 percent and 20.4 percent, respectively, the data showed.
Hmm... 77.2% + 21.8% + 21.4% + 20.4% = 140.8% That is a lot.
I thought this decision was very surprising, I expected an all out ban. I thought he was taking his time because he wanted to present the appearance of actually considering it, but he actually did.
I realize many people will still be pissed with this decision and spew a ton of vitriol towards Mr. Bush, but you have to recognize that this was a huge comprimise on his part.
Sorry, I don't believe it for a second. You make it sound like Bush is beholden to the Taliban wing of the Republican party. Wrong. He's beholden to Big Business. Every actual decision he's made so far has favored them. That any single decision favors the right or the left is purely coincidence and means nothing. I know his words indicate otherwise. Hint: he's lying, (or more precisely: reading). Again: all his decisions favor Big Business, especially the Big Businesses that put him in office. Big Business wants federal funding for stem cell research. Saves them from funding it themselves. There was never a possibility of banning it entirely. They'd never allow it. That would just give the rest of the world a jump on them.
=brian
When the question is 'why', the answer is usually 'money'.
Todays kicking, expensive laptop will be junk in 2 years, and depreciate the moment you open the box. For half it's price, you can get a great 6 month old laptop every year.
For example: if you want a good machine on the cheap, I recommend getting a refurbished IBM thinkpad 600x via ebay for about $900. Only 500mhz, but it can handle 576 MB or RAM. Still under warranty. Lots of folks using these for Linux. http://nav.webring.yahoo.com/hub?ring=linuxthinkpa d&id=6&list
Add a DVD for $150, zip for $50, mondo hd for $150 and push the ram up, you have a nice cheap box.
People make lots of good points, I am impressed with the tenor of the discussion. My own.02 bucks:
- linux v. bsd, kde v. gnome, etc, etc. The linux community spends a lot of energy bickering and re-inventing the wheel, instead of focusing on improving it. Could certainly use some direction. Can you imagine what would happen if everyone pulled in the same direction? Apple's original set of GUI standards gave everyone a target to shoot at. "But we already have standards," you say. I agree. We have many to choose from.:)
- since open-source is based on volunteer efforts, you can't realls "lead" them. You can suggest, encourage, cajole, etc, but really lead them? Perhaps we're anarchists by nature. I know that people are truly committed to general open source ideas, but getting programmers commit their free hours to ideas they might not like, telling them "please work under this person to write a procedure that does this specific thing" for the "common good", that would take a special talent. Some work is not sexy. It still needs to be done.
- if OSS will evet take off, some people will have to swallow some pride, for the common good. "I know you love your windowing manager / distro / editor / whatever and I know that many good people have worked hard on it and I know it has many strengths and in some ways is superior to the others. BUT we have too many of them. We need focus. So got for common good, I want you to set down your pet project and join with these guys here. I want you to work under someone who you don't know well and with whom you disagree."
- We already have leaders. We have one for each major distro / editor / compiler / package, etc. And they all lead in different directions. Who can possibly make them pull in one direction?
Basically, if a destructive force of nanobots gets released, that can duplicate themselves, is immune to EMP, and is self sufficient. Well, we are quite screwed, you have to rely on the fact that no one in their right mind would design such a doomsday device.
I have to disagree strongly. Look at israel, india, ireland. Hell, look at the military. People kill strangers (for honor) using the nastiest weapon they can get their hands on, regardless of the danger to themselves or their own families.
This is the ultimate terrorist weapon. "Give me what I want or I will end the world." Maybe they want all jews to leave israel. Maybe they want the english out of ireland. Maybe they want a good bagel. If nanotech ever ends up in the hands of, say, the Taliban, we are all screwed tight.
What to do? I don't know. But depending solely on the charity or sanity of the least sane nano-engineer is not a plan. The weakest link is the one to worry about.
Maybe it's time to set up colonies on mars. The moon might someday be orbiting a pile of... broken molecules.
=surfcow
Hmm... Seems to me that there are no technological solutions to moral/ethical problems.
Kids are smarter than we think, no - smarter than that, are great hackers and share hacking instructions very well. They can find ways around any walls you put up, even if it means just going to a friends house. If they are curious about sex-sites or whatever, they'll see it. Forbidden fruit is the sweetest. If you prohibit it, they will want it even more. Did you read Genesis?
And where do you stop? Do you follow them to the library, their friends houses, monitor their songs on the radio, ease-drop on their gossiping with friends?
A better and simpler tactic would be to spend time with them, talk frankly with them, educate them on the big world out there and then let them go free. Dare them to ask you questions that make you squirm. Who would you rather have them ask? They will actually be less likely to pig out on the fruit of the tree of knowledge if it is allowed. "It'll be there in the future."
Of course, this takes work and trust and you have to acknowledge that they are growing up at their own pace. Most people would rather buy a program and attempt to build a wall around their heads. The real question is, do you want the illusion of safety or a healthy child?
... and any like them that come down the road. If the GPL is really so weak that this arguement can even be an debated in court, then the GPL needs to be changed or updated right away.
Are there plans to update / review the GLP? We all know that code needs maintaining and updating. Is anyone surprised that a legal document also needs updating? A lot is resting on this foundation.
The supreme court is certain to throw this out, even on a bad day. And I suspect all the law makers know it. That's why it will pass overwhelmingly. This _is_ an election year. Our leaders will vote for silly but high-profile items. Look at the electronic decency act. I think this is a non-issue. Freedoms are being infringed in many other ways every day and in plain sight.
Yes, I believe that AI can be used to enhance natural intelligence. I recommend a book called 'The Diamond Age' by Neil Stephenson. In it, a young girl is essencially raised by an AI-based, interective, self-modifying, book. It teaches her lessons in many topics, test her understanding, evaluates her progress, builds the next lesson based on her performance, provides an outlet for creativity, and so on. You might find it a thought-provoking model. If you could use that great education you are getting to build tools that would allow us to help make our children smarter or more emotionally healthy or just better people, you will have performed an amazing service. And I'll bet it's more fun than creating the next programmable shopping cart. There is a huge market for this already. 20 years from now, something akin to this will exist. Maybe you will be the person to get rick bringing this to market. Good luck and aloha, =brian
Slashdot Mirror
Oh my gosh, did terrorists use crypto? We'd better not let that happen again!
Hmm... I wonder if they used Windows?
You just know the sleazoids on the right will use this awful event as an excuse to step up surveillance, etc. A "strong response" will boost Bush in the polls. A wartime mentality is always good for conservative causes. Kiss social security good bye. New restrictions but, hey there's Free Cigarettes. Guns should be cheap and plentiful. And the constitution needed changing anyway.
=surfcow
The survey also found that 77.2 percent of the developers surveyed chose Red Hat Linux as the distribution for use with a Web server or Web application server. This is more than three times the 21.8 percent who selected SuSE Linux or Mandrake. Caldera OpenLinux and FreeBSD followed, with 21.4 percent and 20.4 percent, respectively, the data showed.
Hmm... 77.2% + 21.8% + 21.4% + 20.4% = 140.8% That is a lot.
=brianBunk-desks! =brian
I thought this decision was very surprising, I expected an all out ban. I thought he was taking his time because he wanted to present the appearance of actually considering it, but he actually did.
I realize many people will still be pissed with this decision and spew a ton of vitriol towards Mr. Bush, but you have to recognize that this was a huge comprimise on his part.
Sorry, I don't believe it for a second. You make it sound like Bush is beholden to the Taliban wing of the Republican party. Wrong. He's beholden to Big Business. Every actual decision he's made so far has favored them. That any single decision favors the right or the left is purely coincidence and means nothing. I know his words indicate otherwise. Hint: he's lying, (or more precisely: reading). Again: all his decisions favor Big Business, especially the Big Businesses that put him in office. Big Business wants federal funding for stem cell research. Saves them from funding it themselves. There was never a possibility of banning it entirely. They'd never allow it. That would just give the rest of the world a jump on them.=brian
When the question is 'why', the answer is usually 'money'.
Todays kicking, expensive laptop will be junk in 2 years, and depreciate the moment you open the box. For half it's price, you can get a great 6 month old laptop every year.
a d&id=6&list
For example: if you want a good machine on the cheap, I recommend getting a refurbished IBM thinkpad 600x via ebay for about $900. Only 500mhz, but it can handle 576 MB or RAM. Still under warranty. Lots of folks using these for Linux. http://nav.webring.yahoo.com/hub?ring=linuxthinkp
Add a DVD for $150, zip for $50, mondo hd for $150 and push the ram up, you have a nice cheap box.
=brian
People make lots of good points, I am impressed with the tenor of the discussion. My own .02 bucks:
:)
- linux v. bsd, kde v. gnome, etc, etc. The linux community spends a lot of energy bickering and re-inventing the wheel, instead of focusing on improving it. Could certainly use some direction. Can you imagine what would happen if everyone pulled in the same direction? Apple's original set of GUI standards gave everyone a target to shoot at. "But we already have standards," you say. I agree. We have many to choose from.
- since open-source is based on volunteer efforts, you can't realls "lead" them. You can suggest, encourage, cajole, etc, but really lead them? Perhaps we're anarchists by nature. I know that people are truly committed to general open source ideas, but getting programmers commit their free hours to ideas they might not like, telling them "please work under this person to write a procedure that does this specific thing" for the "common good", that would take a special talent. Some work is not sexy. It still needs to be done.
- if OSS will evet take off, some people will have to swallow some pride, for the common good. "I know you love your windowing manager / distro / editor / whatever and I know that many good people have worked hard on it and I know it has many strengths and in some ways is superior to the others. BUT we have too many of them. We need focus. So got for common good, I want you to set down your pet project and join with these guys here. I want you to work under someone who you don't know well and with whom you disagree."
- We already have leaders. We have one for each major distro / editor / compiler / package, etc. And they all lead in different directions. Who can possibly make them pull in one direction?
=brian
Basically, if a destructive force of nanobots gets released, that can duplicate themselves, is immune to EMP, and is self sufficient. Well, we are quite screwed, you have to rely on the fact that no one in their right mind would design such a doomsday device. I have to disagree strongly. Look at israel, india, ireland. Hell, look at the military. People kill strangers (for honor) using the nastiest weapon they can get their hands on, regardless of the danger to themselves or their own families. This is the ultimate terrorist weapon. "Give me what I want or I will end the world." Maybe they want all jews to leave israel. Maybe they want the english out of ireland. Maybe they want a good bagel. If nanotech ever ends up in the hands of, say, the Taliban, we are all screwed tight. What to do? I don't know. But depending solely on the charity or sanity of the least sane nano-engineer is not a plan. The weakest link is the one to worry about. Maybe it's time to set up colonies on mars. The moon might someday be orbiting a pile of ... broken molecules.
=surfcow
Hmm... Seems to me that there are no technological solutions to moral/ethical problems.
Kids are smarter than we think, no - smarter than that, are great hackers and share hacking instructions very well. They can find ways around any walls you put up, even if it means just going to a friends house. If they are curious about sex-sites or whatever, they'll see it. Forbidden fruit is the sweetest. If you prohibit it, they will want it even more. Did you read Genesis?
And where do you stop? Do you follow them to the library, their friends houses, monitor their songs on the radio, ease-drop on their gossiping with friends?
A better and simpler tactic would be to spend time with them, talk frankly with them, educate them on the big world out there and then let them go free. Dare them to ask you questions that make you squirm. Who would you rather have them ask? They will actually be less likely to pig out on the fruit of the tree of knowledge if it is allowed. "It'll be there in the future."
Of course, this takes work and trust and you have to acknowledge that they are growing up at their own pace. Most people would rather buy a program and attempt to build a wall around their heads. The real question is, do you want the illusion of safety or a healthy child?
=surfcow
... and any like them that come down the road. If the GPL is really so weak that this arguement can even be an debated in court, then the GPL needs to be changed or updated right away. Are there plans to update / review the GLP? We all know that code needs maintaining and updating. Is anyone surprised that a legal document also needs updating? A lot is resting on this foundation.
The supreme court is certain to throw this out, even on a bad day. And I suspect all the law makers know it. That's why it will pass overwhelmingly. This _is_ an election year. Our leaders will vote for silly but high-profile items. Look at the electronic decency act. I think this is a non-issue. Freedoms are being infringed in many other ways every day and in plain sight.
~surfcow
Yes, I believe that AI can be used to enhance natural intelligence. I recommend a book called 'The Diamond Age' by Neil Stephenson. In it, a young girl is essencially raised by an AI-based, interective, self-modifying, book. It teaches her lessons in many topics, test her understanding, evaluates her progress, builds the next lesson based on her performance, provides an outlet for creativity, and so on. You might find it a thought-provoking model. If you could use that great education you are getting to build tools that would allow us to help make our children smarter or more emotionally healthy or just better people, you will have performed an amazing service. And I'll bet it's more fun than creating the next programmable shopping cart. There is a huge market for this already. 20 years from now, something akin to this will exist. Maybe you will be the person to get rick bringing this to market. Good luck and aloha, =brian