YOU BET! I've lived thru the evolution of computing from the time computers were these giant things tended by acolytes in air-conditioned rooms. There's nothing I'd go back for. I'm particularly looking forward to playing the new Half Life game. Think I'd want to go back for, say, Castle Wolfenstein? Or maybe Space War played at great expense on an oscilloscope attached to a PDP 11? Noooo.
This might not persist, however. I can now officially buy more disk storage than I can use, something that was impossible in the past. I suspect that, at some point, I'm going to be officially able to buy more computing speed than I can use too. That's my hope anyway.
Look at how quickly they passed legislation for the do-not-call list.
I suspect that's more the result of them getting those calls themselves than it was due to citizen input (although I'm sure there was quite a lot of that anyway). The DMCA would be history if lots of members of Congress and their staff and offspring were getting their doors figuratively kicked in by the RIAA and its minions in law enforcement.
One student who asked not to be named said he was upset that he can no longer play LAN games with friends on his floor. Last year, he would regularly joust with 15 others, but the school restricts using a computer as a server, so he's given up the activity.
Can't they set up a WiFi net of their own? Seems like that would permit gaming at least.
Anyone noticing that the majority of the press on this issue lately is stories like this one, and the 12-year-old kid who was sued? The RIAA made a big splash with its initial announcement of large numbers of lawsuits, but now they're going to suffer the death of a thousand cuts for tales of innocent/naive users crushed beneath their jackboots. Whatever gain they hoped for in deterrence is going to pale in comparison to the losses they're going to reap looking like storm troopers.
(Godwin's law not invoked because I intentionally didn't use the word 'Nazi.' Oops... dang)
Actually, I favor abolishment of morse. We need more interest in the hobby, and today's kids are a bunch of lazy lardasses who can't be bothered to learn it. May as well face up to the fact and let them in.
Re:Government thinks you're stupid
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· Score: 1
Just 'cuz some dipstick shoves a pencil up his nose shouldn't mean we outlaw pencils, which is the usual government approach to problems. We're better off abolishing the Ministry of Pencil Shovers, and let the few idiots continue damaging themselves. Think of it as evolution in action.
There's already a no-code service. It's called CB.
Government thinks you're stupid
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· Score: 4, Insightful
While the big bad government should be viewed skeptically in terms of censorship and regulation, it also does a million good things related to the non-techie parts of our lives.
Unfortunately, one goes with the other. You let government do "a million good things" for you and its natural instinct is to do even more. For your own good of course. That includes censorship and regulation. Government thinks you can't handle your own affairs, so it'll just have to do it for you, you stupid clod.
Maybe you didn't notice it, but my screen name isn't Donald Rumsfeld, so my comments weren't meant to represent all of DoD, just us group of developers.
How typical of someone who works in defense- you haven't the slightest idea what goes on anywhere except in your little world.
I like how the mildest SlashDot comment can bring out the peevish dweebs. Since I'm not occupying a cabinet-level position, I wasn't speaking for the entire organization, just the group in my little world that I work with. If some bunch of idiots somewhere in DoD want to risk lives by developing around Microsoft software, that's their problem.
I don't think anyone in an IT capacity in the DoD could possibly say that there are 'no microsoft products here' - that's just ludicrous.
Indeed it is, which is why nobody is saying it here. I'm not Dick Cheney, so I can't speak for all of DoD. The group I work with doesn't use Microsoft products in anything that has to be a) secure and/or b) reliable.
If Ridge and DHS doesn't already know this, they've been asleep. I do work for the Defense Department, and we won't consider using Microsoft code for anything that's important.
Eigenradio plays only the most important frequencies, only the beats with the highest entropy... One song on Eigenradio is worth at least twenty songs on old radio.
How come the Iranian government doesn't just monitor the traffic and kick in the door of anyone caught using this service (i.e. connecting to an anonymizer IP #)? That seems to be the approach the RIAA thinks is going to end file trading: make a few very public examples in order to intimidate everyone else.
I wonder if Japan's aging population has anything to do with this? The Japanese birth rate is below replacement level, the only way to support the aging population in the future would be to let gaijin in to do the work, and yet they're notoriously xenophobic and nationalistic. Maybe there's some subtext of this at work in proposing this project.
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YOU BET! I've lived thru the evolution of computing from the time computers were these giant things tended by acolytes in air-conditioned rooms. There's nothing I'd go back for. I'm particularly looking forward to playing the new Half Life game. Think I'd want to go back for, say, Castle Wolfenstein? Or maybe Space War played at great expense on an oscilloscope attached to a PDP 11? Noooo.
This might not persist, however. I can now officially buy more disk storage than I can use, something that was impossible in the past. I suspect that, at some point, I'm going to be officially able to buy more computing speed than I can use too. That's my hope anyway.
Personal EMF Shielding devices! Be sure to check out the boxer shorts.
So maybe we should start defining people's political viewpoints not as "liberal" or "conservative" but as "one-sigma," "two-sigma," etc.
And about 50 IQ points. I'll let people's personal biases dictate which way to interpret that.
I suspect that's more the result of them getting those calls themselves than it was due to citizen input (although I'm sure there was quite a lot of that anyway). The DMCA would be history if lots of members of Congress and their staff and offspring were getting their doors figuratively kicked in by the RIAA and its minions in law enforcement.
Can't they set up a WiFi net of their own? Seems like that would permit gaming at least.
Anyone noticing that the majority of the press on this issue lately is stories like this one, and the 12-year-old kid who was sued? The RIAA made a big splash with its initial announcement of large numbers of lawsuits, but now they're going to suffer the death of a thousand cuts for tales of innocent/naive users crushed beneath their jackboots. Whatever gain they hoped for in deterrence is going to pale in comparison to the losses they're going to reap looking like storm troopers.
... dang)
(Godwin's law not invoked because I intentionally didn't use the word 'Nazi.' Oops
Actually, I favor abolishment of morse. We need more interest in the hobby, and today's kids are a bunch of lazy lardasses who can't be bothered to learn it. May as well face up to the fact and let them in.
Just 'cuz some dipstick shoves a pencil up his nose shouldn't mean we outlaw pencils, which is the usual government approach to problems. We're better off abolishing the Ministry of Pencil Shovers, and let the few idiots continue damaging themselves. Think of it as evolution in action.
There's already a no-code service. It's called CB.
Unfortunately, one goes with the other. You let government do "a million good things" for you and its natural instinct is to do even more. For your own good of course. That includes censorship and regulation. Government thinks you can't handle your own affairs, so it'll just have to do it for you, you stupid clod.
Why should it matter to you if they publish this, even if it is crap? It's not like they're going to force you to read the thing. Don't buy it.
I went looking for that essay Cringley mentions and he's the only online reference to it. Anyone know where it appeared?
Maybe you didn't notice it, but my screen name isn't Donald Rumsfeld, so my comments weren't meant to represent all of DoD, just us group of developers.
I like how the mildest SlashDot comment can bring out the peevish dweebs. Since I'm not occupying a cabinet-level position, I wasn't speaking for the entire organization, just the group in my little world that I work with. If some bunch of idiots somewhere in DoD want to risk lives by developing around Microsoft software, that's their problem.
Dick Cheney, as we all know, is head of the Ministry of Silly Walks.
Indeed it is, which is why nobody is saying it here. I'm not Dick Cheney, so I can't speak for all of DoD. The group I work with doesn't use Microsoft products in anything that has to be a) secure and/or b) reliable.
"We" meaning me and the people I work for. "We" don't give a damn what some other group is doing. Did you think I was speaking for the entire DoD?
If Ridge and DHS doesn't already know this, they've been asleep. I do work for the Defense Department, and we won't consider using Microsoft code for anything that's important.
Reader's Digest comes to music.
Let me just go on record as saying that that's the weirdest web page layout I've encountered in a long time.
How come the Iranian government doesn't just monitor the traffic and kick in the door of anyone caught using this service (i.e. connecting to an anonymizer IP #)? That seems to be the approach the RIAA thinks is going to end file trading: make a few very public examples in order to intimidate everyone else.
Sounds like a violation of the DMCA to me.
This is reply 0x9F58706330A1857839DB0F2C. Please refer to this ID in any correspondence.
I wonder if Japan's aging population has anything to do with this? The Japanese birth rate is below replacement level, the only way to support the aging population in the future would be to let gaijin in to do the work, and yet they're notoriously xenophobic and nationalistic. Maybe there's some subtext of this at work in proposing this project.
Psychiatric help, 5 cents.