This is the case in my office, where IE6 is the approved standard, and no one is allowed to use FireFox or Opera or Chrome
Is looking at youtube videos seriously part of your job? If so, it sounds like you have the justification needed by your IT department.
If not, then you probably won't find too many people at work to cry over the fact you can't watch youtube videos.
You could always take a smartphone or a laptop with a cell modem and watch youtube on your own time equipment and bandwidth. Assuming they would be OK with the occasional quick slack-break and you using their bandwidth, then you just need a laptop and ethernet cable.
Worst case, you can look at youtube when you get home. This is not the big deal you are making it out to be.
I think it's more about letting another company handle your company's email. There is so much critical information about a company in their email, why would they trust it to any external company, even if it is Google. Also, I'm unfamiliar with how Google handles data retention of email. Outlook allows some backup of emails at the IT level of all company emails (included deleted ones).
The article is clearly talking about comparing things to Exchange server. If you won't trust your email with another company, they won't be running Exchange since Microsoft (read: another company) makes that software.
There is no more trust from Google than currently with Microsoft for using a Google App Appliance.
You are saying businesses won't trust putting their email on a Google app server in the companies server farm, because that is somehow different from putting their email on an exchange server in the companies server farm?
Somehow using software from Google on your own hardware is trusting Google, yet using software from Microsoft on your own hardware is not trusting Microsoft?
If a company won't trust software from Google, unless they are just lying and being hypocrites, are already avoiding Exchange for the exact same reason. If they ARE on Exchange server, they are already running Exchange in-house, so there is no difference in running Google Apps in-house as well. Exactly nothing internal leaves the company in either case.
We're not talking about Google's free personal Gmail service only available online here;}
Please don't promote this butchery of the english language being perpetrated by luddites and imbeciles so paranoid they feel the need to apply a double standard in which the bill of rights does not apply on the internet.
Sadly for this specific case, "Hey! He stole my idea!" was in use in English long before the Internet existed.
That old saying will be a lot harder to get people to stop saying/thinking than all the newer made up stuff where 'theft' means 4-5 different crimes, only one of which is actually theft.
At work we have PC's much older than that, running manufacturing equipment. If any of them break down, I have a whole room full of old PC's that I could simply search for parts. Eventually we'll run out of parts (the equipment need ISA bus to operate), but at this rate, we're good for another 25 years or so.
I manage IT at a manufacturer as well, and have come across this same issue.
Too many manufacturing machines use old PCs for their controllers due to two main reasons, one exactly as you mentioned (ISA slots), and two is timing issues with faster CPUs.
My solution has been a more modern computer, dosbox (or worst case vmware), and a USB to ISA Slot adapter such as this guy
You then get all the benifits of having a visualization/abstraction layer between the old software, and more modern hardware.
With dosbox, you can limit CPU type and speed down to the hertz, and with a choice of running the translation drivers on the host (So the emulator accesses the hosts "isa bus" directly) or in the emulator itself (If the software is win95 or better based, this is a more direct option.. But if it is DOS based, it is easier to not mess with USB DOS support and do it on the host)
The trick is to do the scripting yourself for the 'behind the scenes' work, like booting into the visualization layer then into the software automatically and 'full screen', so you will not need to retrain your engineers on how it operates; and then provide a method to 'pause' the virtual machine, perform a backup, and continue processing at times when the machine is down or in your normal scheduled downtime. Backing up the entire virtual environment over to your usual file storage SAN/NAS, then over to your backup solution with all the other machines is a huge time saver. Most of those older machines either did not support networking in hardware, or was such an old OS/App combo that I would never attempt to put them on our LAN.
Now granted, if your hardware is under a support contract, you are probably forbidden from making such a change. But as you stated that you maintain your own replacement parts stock, I'll assume that is not something you have, or not an option (as is our case for most of the older 2nd hand machines)
It has been a quest for a lot of people for some time now. USB 3.5" floppy drives are a dime a dozen but I haven't found a manufacturer for USB 5.25 floppy drives yet.
I have found one limited way to have a USB 5.25" drive, which for some limited applications seems to get the job done.
I stumbled over a "usb floppy drive" which like all the others was 3.5", but upon disassembly saw it was a USB floppy controller, with standard 34 pin connector, going to a normal everyday 3.5" drive. This means swapping the drive for a 5.25" was trivial!
The gotcha is, the controller itself is 'hard wired' to only handle certain formats on the floppy drive.
As these USB floppy controllers are designed for windows/dos, chances are only certain DOS formats are supported on the drive. Useful for a system like this guys, not so useful for trying to read in old CP/M or apple2 disks.
I admit it is limited, but might be useful none the less
For example: Is my POP client going to hand my login credentials to a Comcast server, if my email service's DNS does not resolve for some reason?
...
The passwords are even sent plaintext, most of the time.
Then your answer is yes, either way (with DNS hijacking, or how things are right now this very second) you have handed your login credentials over to your ISP.
They can grab your traffic at the wire level and redirect a copy to another server long before they would need to redirect your POP connection using a DNS spoof to their own server.
Did you really have professors that required the newest books? Maybe my department (chemistry major) was a little different, but they didn't care. The semester usually started off with "here is the current book. If you don't have this one don't worry about it, just make copies of what you need." The same went for my math classes.
The problem is mainly with the professors who write the textbook for their own class, thus are the copyright holder, and make minor changes here and there (moving a keyword to another paragraph, swapping the titles of sections, renaming sections) so that an older book would cause more confusion as it didn't match up with the course work exactly. If you question them on this, they say it is your own fault for not having the newest $160 copy of the book.
To those types, teaching anyone is not their desire, only to extract more money from them. Granted, those people should never have been able to be hired into a position requiring them to give our their precious knowledge after it was paid for *only* once (gasp!), but that is the state of things for the past decade.
I've even had one professor state he would fail anyone caught with an older version of the book. (If that happened or not I can't say, since around a quarter of the class including myself dropped it)
Fortunately not all professors are like this. Most that are in that game do it for the teaching the next generation, and kudos to them.
As usual, it is the few bad apples ruining everything around them.
The following can be held responsible 1) The train dirver 2) The car driver 3) The bike rider 4) The pedestrian
In the case of a train crossing, you blame #2-4 depending which mode of transportation the idiot was using when they put themselves in front of the train. You can't blame #1, as there is NOTHING literally that they can do except toot a horn.
Basically the further to the left on this list the more responsibility: train>truck>car>bicycle>pedestrian.
I agree with the spirit of your post, so this isn't an argument or anything, but I do think the above list is a bit off regarding trains. While that list is correct if you are listing 'what causes / can cause the most damage', but as far as responsibility, trains have almost no control over their situation. A loaded train moving at a quarter of the road speed limit when crossing it, still can require up to a quarter mile to come to a full stop. So hitting the breaks so to speak is not really an option without lots of advanced warning of the need to stop. And obviously swerving out of the way is out of the question;}
It would be quite silly to hold a train responsible for actions they have no control over...
The rest of the list is fair, even if not reflected in US law as you describe it as being over there. Here, its partially the fault of whom broke the law at the time, and partially the fault of whomever is pissing the cop off the most at the time.
This is mostly a good thing. Yes, there are asshole motorists, but there are also asshole bikers. If only everyone would use common sense and realize being delayed 30 seconds is not the end of the world.
I never understood how a person could be on the road, see no one in front of them, then see an insanely long line of traffic behind them which is being held up due to their driving behavior, how can they not feel ashamed at being so selfish and inconsiderate? Giving up 30 seconds to get out of the way to not inconvenience many others, while not required by law, is just the right thing to do. This goes for both bikes AND cars.
This does go for cars too, when they try with all their assholish might to pass everyone for that 30 second advantage. It's just not worth it. It is equally dickish to do to others like the above, but arguably even more dangerous.
Back to the topic of the device in question... I conclude that a technical solution can not truly solve a social / human problem.
I'm starting to think we just have too much knowledge these days. I've lost count of the number of 'discoveries' that are already known, both in IT and the wider areas of science and beyond.
Sorry, somebody already thought of that.
Probably the Simpsons.
*In comic book guys voice*
Season 10, episode 2, The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace
"Homer gets to work and develops several inventions, such as an alarm that beeps every three seconds when everything is OK, a shotgun which shoots make-up onto women's faces, a very difficult to control electric hammer, and a reclining chair which has a built-in toilet. But none of these inventions are well received. Feeling despondent over his failure to invent anything useful, his invention career is saved when he reveals he added two hinged legs to a chair making it impossible to tip over backwards. However, his hopes are dashed when he notices his poster of Edison shows his idol sitting in the same type of chair, which indicates Edison has already invented Homer's untippable chair. But Homer also finds out no one else has seen the extra legs on Edison's chair, and thus Edison has never received public credit for inventing it. So he sets out with Bart and his electric hammer to the Edison Museum in New Jersey to destroy the chair. Before he smashes the chair, Homer notices a poster of Edison's which reveals that Edison idolized Leonardo da Vinci in the same way Homer idolizes Edison."
There is little that ANY document can do by itself.
In fact, it would probably do a better cause as far as damage goes if you just ignite the pages from the sly-mall magazine instead of writable paper. The glossy coating should sour the air just a tiny bit faster.
Or maybe they are afraid that their well armed sky marshals will be paper-cut to death!
I'll probably be modded troll for this, but this is my opinion, and agree with it or not, it is still my opinion. If you can share yours, don't be upset for me doing the same. If you disagree with my opinion, hit reply and try to persuade me. Hit reply and cuss me out. Ignore me as a freak. But don't get pissed off because someone feels differently than you, ktnx.
Two points
Why do Slashdotters believe the rights of the content creators whose material is pirated on PirateBay don't matter, but the rights of GPL authors do? If copyright law is wrong, then I can do whatever I want with your precious GPL code and completely ignore the usage restrictions described in the copyright license.
First, no one said that "the rights of the content creators whose material is pirated on PirateBay don't matter"
I will say it, because that is what I believe. But that is not what most slashdotters think or feel, you are just making things up and posting them.
Second, you are right, the GPL should not exist. Without copyright law, as I said I am for, the GPL *wouldn't* exist!
Copyright needs abolished. And before you say "How do you expect artists to be compensated?", the answer is, by getting a job like everyone else. No one should have any say so or right to control the sharing of what is in your head. That covers both the things I come up with in my head myself and share, OR the things in my head put there by others who clearly choose to share them by making them public.
Copyright is not about doing squat for artists or 'content creators' as you call them, except for limiting their rights. How can a law that, while yes protecting that fraction of 0.001% of the thoughts you made, but in exchange for removing your right to use the other 99.999% of the thoughts in your mind that came from 'outside', usually from another fellow human being? That is not protecting your rights, its removing them.
While most of slashdot is all about making copyright sane, all they are arguing over is how restricted is ok, 99.999% or just 99.991%, simply because one number is lower than the other.
Humanity developed language more complex than any other primate (or life of any sort for that matter) just to share the ideas and thoughts in our heads. That is such an insanely great accomplishment of history! And now, very recently compared to the rise of human language, a small group of people are wanting to reverse that effect and prevent us from sharing those ideas that brought about civilization.
It's an all or nothing solution. We are either free, or not. There can be no middle ground. Our society will either have to control all of it or none of it. Our communications will either have to be monitored or free, our privacy to be either continuously probed or protected. Copyrights are like a vine that will never stop growing to choke off our freedoms until we cut it off at the root.
The right to copy and imitate, to share ideas and information, is a right that exists independently of our government. Gravity is not made or destroyed by the government, nor are rights. Just as gravity can not be bought or sold for the sake of the will of others, nor can rights. Rights are observable. We evolved to use language to share our ideas. Language wouldn't need to exist as it does if not. Humanity would not be where it is today, and you would not be in a civilized nation to create ideas, if it wasn't for the ideas that were shared before you were born. You have NO say so about that changing. It will not. It can not.
And finally
Conclusion--if copyright is wrong, then so is the GPL.
So if I photoshopped a picture of a minor and smeared virtual poop on his/her face that would also be emotional abuse? Or if I photoshopped the photo of a skinny girl's head on a fat girl's body? I suppose that would qualify as harm as well.
Lets just go one further step for mental harm.
Say I took a picture of a fat child, and the child doesn't like the fact they are fat. The simple act of reality existing is emotionally harming, and being the one that pointed it out by taking a picture, that would mean jail time.
Did he publish? I can't see that in the article - even if he did, I think child porn would be the wrong law to use, because it's a different thing, nowhere near as serious as sexual abuse, and it would also set the precedent for simple possession being illegal.
Well there is your problem.
If he was prosecuted under the laws he broke, he wouldn't be in jail, and not much would have happened.
But when prosecuted under child porn laws, no matter how obvious to everyone involved that you had nothing to do with child porn, you are still going to prison for a long time.
That is the only goal of law these days. To put innocent people in jail for slave labor. Has nothing to do with protecting anything except their slave labor income rates.
Sad, messed up, and shouldn't be, but thats how it is.
The first time I dropped a 10 pound block of aluminum while taking it out of a nitrogen bucket I expected it to shatter, too. Then I realized I thought that because of hollywood.
In hindsight, they should now make all of the shuttles knobs out of those little rubber balls... Those things shatter nicely!
Otherwise trivial incidents over the course of the shuttle's working life would pose an unacceptable risk--anything breaking loose on re-entry, in particular, could scratch the surface if it was not heavily protected.
I'm fairly sure any and every time something 'broke loose on re-entry' inside of the cabin, they would definitely put a halt on future launches until they fixed that problem.
Typically all of the harshness happens _outside_ of the shuttle, not on the inside where this knob is affecting things.
If something outside the shuttle made it through all of the multiple layers of glass to get to the inside most layer (where the problem now is), that would near instantly cause full cabin depressurization, and loss of crew. It would not be flown again for years (if ever) if that happened anyway.
And they do state right in the article that they replace the outside most layer of glass on each launch anyway, so any damage that makes it through that one layer is basically gone before the next flight.
What are you talking about? Apple doesn't lock you into buying apple batteries. In fact except for laptops, they don't even sell you the battery! You have to go 3rd party.
I also would think that a SSN is a Number for your Social Security. It should be used only for that. No excuses, no exception.
It is really confusing actually. If you believe the social security department, Sprint should be fined bundles of cash each time they ask this question of someone. If you believe the real world however, your SSN is the country wide standard identification number for you.
The back of my SSN card clearly states it is a crime to use that number for any purposes outside of social security, and is not to be used for identification purposes.
I keep my original card at home in a safe. This has always been 'best practices' recommended by the social security department.
Giving your number is voluntary even when you are asked for the number directly. If requested, you should ask:
* Why your number is needed;
* How your number will be used;
* What happens if you refuse; and
* What law requires you to give your number.
The answers to these questions can help you decide if you want to give your Social Security number. The decision is yours
I'm thinking I need to create a front/back print out of this card, but both sides are a copy of the back side:P Then hand that out whenever I am asked for it.
Slashdot Mirror
This is the case in my office, where IE6 is the approved standard, and no one is allowed to use FireFox or Opera or Chrome
Is looking at youtube videos seriously part of your job? If so, it sounds like you have the justification needed by your IT department.
If not, then you probably won't find too many people at work to cry over the fact you can't watch youtube videos.
You could always take a smartphone or a laptop with a cell modem and watch youtube on your own time equipment and bandwidth.
Assuming they would be OK with the occasional quick slack-break and you using their bandwidth, then you just need a laptop and ethernet cable.
Worst case, you can look at youtube when you get home. This is not the big deal you are making it out to be.
I mean, for pete sake people, what possible gain would there be in trying to break into a mechanical leg?
I take it you have not seen 4chan?
They do it for the lulz
And for people with dark senses of humor, hacking into someone else's leg is bubbling over the top with lulz
I think it's more about letting another company handle your company's email. There is so much critical information about a company in their email, why would they trust it to any external company, even if it is Google. Also, I'm unfamiliar with how Google handles data retention of email. Outlook allows some backup of emails at the IT level of all company emails (included deleted ones).
The article is clearly talking about comparing things to Exchange server.
If you won't trust your email with another company, they won't be running Exchange since Microsoft (read: another company) makes that software.
There is no more trust from Google than currently with Microsoft for using a Google App Appliance.
You are saying businesses won't trust putting their email on a Google app server in the companies server farm, because that is somehow different from putting their email on an exchange server in the companies server farm?
Somehow using software from Google on your own hardware is trusting Google, yet using software from Microsoft on your own hardware is not trusting Microsoft?
http://www.google.com/enterprise/
If a company won't trust software from Google, unless they are just lying and being hypocrites, are already avoiding Exchange for the exact same reason.
If they ARE on Exchange server, they are already running Exchange in-house, so there is no difference in running Google Apps in-house as well. Exactly nothing internal leaves the company in either case.
We're not talking about Google's free personal Gmail service only available online here ;}
Please don't promote this butchery of the english language being perpetrated by luddites and imbeciles so paranoid they feel the need to apply a double standard in which the bill of rights does not apply on the internet.
Sadly for this specific case, "Hey! He stole my idea!" was in use in English long before the Internet existed.
That old saying will be a lot harder to get people to stop saying/thinking than all the newer made up stuff where 'theft' means 4-5 different crimes, only one of which is actually theft.
At work we have PC's much older than that, running manufacturing equipment. If any of them break down, I have a whole room full of old PC's that I could simply search for parts. Eventually we'll run out of parts (the equipment need ISA bus to operate), but at this rate, we're good for another 25 years or so.
I manage IT at a manufacturer as well, and have come across this same issue.
Too many manufacturing machines use old PCs for their controllers due to two main reasons, one exactly as you mentioned (ISA slots), and two is timing issues with faster CPUs.
My solution has been a more modern computer, dosbox (or worst case vmware), and a USB to ISA Slot adapter such as this guy
You then get all the benifits of having a visualization/abstraction layer between the old software, and more modern hardware.
With dosbox, you can limit CPU type and speed down to the hertz, and with a choice of running the translation drivers on the host (So the emulator accesses the hosts "isa bus" directly) or in the emulator itself (If the software is win95 or better based, this is a more direct option.. But if it is DOS based, it is easier to not mess with USB DOS support and do it on the host)
The trick is to do the scripting yourself for the 'behind the scenes' work, like booting into the visualization layer then into the software automatically and 'full screen', so you will not need to retrain your engineers on how it operates; and then provide a method to 'pause' the virtual machine, perform a backup, and continue processing at times when the machine is down or in your normal scheduled downtime. Backing up the entire virtual environment over to your usual file storage SAN/NAS, then over to your backup solution with all the other machines is a huge time saver. Most of those older machines either did not support networking in hardware, or was such an old OS/App combo that I would never attempt to put them on our LAN.
Now granted, if your hardware is under a support contract, you are probably forbidden from making such a change. But as you stated that you maintain your own replacement parts stock, I'll assume that is not something you have, or not an option (as is our case for most of the older 2nd hand machines)
It has been a quest for a lot of people for some time now. USB 3.5" floppy drives are a dime a dozen but I haven't found a manufacturer for USB 5.25 floppy drives yet.
I have found one limited way to have a USB 5.25" drive, which for some limited applications seems to get the job done.
I stumbled over a "usb floppy drive" which like all the others was 3.5", but upon disassembly saw it was a USB floppy controller, with standard 34 pin connector, going to a normal everyday 3.5" drive.
This means swapping the drive for a 5.25" was trivial!
The gotcha is, the controller itself is 'hard wired' to only handle certain formats on the floppy drive.
The unit I got was a Buslink FDD1 3.5" USB floppy
but it only supported 1440k, 1200k, and 1232k
As these USB floppy controllers are designed for windows/dos, chances are only certain DOS formats are supported on the drive. Useful for a system like this guys, not so useful for trying to read in old CP/M or apple2 disks.
I admit it is limited, but might be useful none the less
Seriously. It overrides every attached HD. How well does a RAID stand up to that in terms of data protection?
Well, all of the HDs in the RAID are still hardware functional, so the RAID is working 100%, and done its job.
No problems there what so ever!
This is why RAID != Backup
For example: Is my POP client going to hand my login credentials to a Comcast server, if my email service's DNS does not resolve for some reason?
...
The passwords are even sent plaintext, most of the time.
Then your answer is yes, either way (with DNS hijacking, or how things are right now this very second) you have handed your login credentials over to your ISP.
They can grab your traffic at the wire level and redirect a copy to another server long before they would need to redirect your POP connection using a DNS spoof to their own server.
Did you really have professors that required the newest books? Maybe my department (chemistry major) was a little different, but they didn't care. The semester usually started off with "here is the current book. If you don't have this one don't worry about it, just make copies of what you need." The same went for my math classes.
The problem is mainly with the professors who write the textbook for their own class, thus are the copyright holder, and make minor changes here and there (moving a keyword to another paragraph, swapping the titles of sections, renaming sections) so that an older book would cause more confusion as it didn't match up with the course work exactly.
If you question them on this, they say it is your own fault for not having the newest $160 copy of the book.
To those types, teaching anyone is not their desire, only to extract more money from them.
Granted, those people should never have been able to be hired into a position requiring them to give our their precious knowledge after it was paid for *only* once (gasp!), but that is the state of things for the past decade.
I've even had one professor state he would fail anyone caught with an older version of the book.
(If that happened or not I can't say, since around a quarter of the class including myself dropped it)
Fortunately not all professors are like this. Most that are in that game do it for the teaching the next generation, and kudos to them.
As usual, it is the few bad apples ruining everything around them.
The following can be held responsible
1) The train dirver
2) The car driver
3) The bike rider
4) The pedestrian
In the case of a train crossing, you blame #2-4 depending which mode of transportation the idiot was using when they put themselves in front of the train. You can't blame #1, as there is NOTHING literally that they can do except toot a horn.
Basically the further to the left on this list the more responsibility: train>truck>car>bicycle>pedestrian.
I agree with the spirit of your post, so this isn't an argument or anything, but I do think the above list is a bit off regarding trains. ;}
While that list is correct if you are listing 'what causes / can cause the most damage', but as far as responsibility, trains have almost no control over their situation. A loaded train moving at a quarter of the road speed limit when crossing it, still can require up to a quarter mile to come to a full stop. So hitting the breaks so to speak is not really an option without lots of advanced warning of the need to stop. And obviously swerving out of the way is out of the question
It would be quite silly to hold a train responsible for actions they have no control over...
The rest of the list is fair, even if not reflected in US law as you describe it as being over there.
Here, its partially the fault of whom broke the law at the time, and partially the fault of whomever is pissing the cop off the most at the time.
This is mostly a good thing. Yes, there are asshole motorists, but there are also asshole bikers.
If only everyone would use common sense and realize being delayed 30 seconds is not the end of the world.
I never understood how a person could be on the road, see no one in front of them, then see an insanely long line of traffic behind them which is being held up due to their driving behavior, how can they not feel ashamed at being so selfish and inconsiderate?
Giving up 30 seconds to get out of the way to not inconvenience many others, while not required by law, is just the right thing to do. This goes for both bikes AND cars.
This does go for cars too, when they try with all their assholish might to pass everyone for that 30 second advantage. It's just not worth it. It is equally dickish to do to others like the above, but arguably even more dangerous.
Back to the topic of the device in question... I conclude that a technical solution can not truly solve a social / human problem.
I think they just found his children in the sewers of North Carolina
( Video link, and I should probably put a warning of some sort here.. Warning: Contents may include scary life form )
http://www.wimp.com/lifeform/
I'm starting to think we just have too much knowledge these days. I've lost count of the number of 'discoveries' that are already known, both in IT and the wider areas of science and beyond.
Sorry, somebody already thought of that.
Probably the Simpsons.
*In comic book guys voice*
Season 10, episode 2, The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace
"Homer gets to work and develops several inventions, such as an alarm that beeps every three seconds when everything is OK, a shotgun which shoots make-up onto women's faces, a very difficult to control electric hammer, and a reclining chair which has a built-in toilet. But none of these inventions are well received. Feeling despondent over his failure to invent anything useful, his invention career is saved when he reveals he added two hinged legs to a chair making it impossible to tip over backwards. However, his hopes are dashed when he notices his poster of Edison shows his idol sitting in the same type of chair, which indicates Edison has already invented Homer's untippable chair. But Homer also finds out no one else has seen the extra legs on Edison's chair, and thus Edison has never received public credit for inventing it. So he sets out with Bart and his electric hammer to the Edison Museum in New Jersey to destroy the chair. Before he smashes the chair, Homer notices a poster of Edison's which reveals that Edison idolized Leonardo da Vinci in the same way Homer idolizes Edison."
There is little that ANY document can do by itself.
In fact, it would probably do a better cause as far as damage goes if you just ignite the pages from the sly-mall magazine instead of writable paper. The glossy coating should sour the air just a tiny bit faster.
Or maybe they are afraid that their well armed sky marshals will be paper-cut to death!
Why not just use the landline they provide you at work at your desk?
Yea, just try to explain the 2000 mile phone extension cord you are trailing behind you back to the home office to the TSA...
I'll probably be modded troll for this, but this is my opinion, and agree with it or not, it is still my opinion. If you can share yours, don't be upset for me doing the same.
If you disagree with my opinion, hit reply and try to persuade me. Hit reply and cuss me out. Ignore me as a freak. But don't get pissed off because someone feels differently than you, ktnx.
Two points
Why do Slashdotters believe the rights of the content creators whose material is pirated on PirateBay don't matter, but the rights of GPL authors do? If copyright law is wrong, then I can do whatever I want with your precious GPL code and completely ignore the usage restrictions described in the copyright license.
First, no one said that "the rights of the content creators whose material is pirated on PirateBay don't matter"
I will say it, because that is what I believe. But that is not what most slashdotters think or feel, you are just making things up and posting them.
Second, you are right, the GPL should not exist. Without copyright law, as I said I am for, the GPL *wouldn't* exist!
Copyright needs abolished. And before you say "How do you expect artists to be compensated?", the answer is, by getting a job like everyone else. No one should have any say so or right to control the sharing of what is in your head.
That covers both the things I come up with in my head myself and share, OR the things in my head put there by others who clearly choose to share them by making them public.
Copyright is not about doing squat for artists or 'content creators' as you call them, except for limiting their rights.
How can a law that, while yes protecting that fraction of 0.001% of the thoughts you made, but in exchange for removing your right to use the other 99.999% of the thoughts in your mind that came from 'outside', usually from another fellow human being? That is not protecting your rights, its removing them.
While most of slashdot is all about making copyright sane, all they are arguing over is how restricted is ok, 99.999% or just 99.991%, simply because one number is lower than the other.
Humanity developed language more complex than any other primate (or life of any sort for that matter) just to share the ideas and thoughts in our heads. That is such an insanely great accomplishment of history!
And now, very recently compared to the rise of human language, a small group of people are wanting to reverse that effect and prevent us from sharing those ideas that brought about civilization.
It's an all or nothing solution. We are either free, or not. There can be no middle ground. Our society will either have to control all of it or none of it. Our communications will either have to be monitored or free, our privacy to be either continuously probed or protected.
Copyrights are like a vine that will never stop growing to choke off our freedoms until we cut it off at the root.
The right to copy and imitate, to share ideas and information, is a right that exists independently of our government.
Gravity is not made or destroyed by the government, nor are rights. Just as gravity can not be bought or sold for the sake of the will of others, nor can rights. Rights are observable.
We evolved to use language to share our ideas. Language wouldn't need to exist as it does if not. Humanity would not be where it is today, and you would not be in a civilized nation to create ideas, if it wasn't for the ideas that were shared before you were born. You have NO say so about that changing. It will not. It can not.
And finally
Conclusion--if copyright is wrong, then so is the GPL.
Exactly.
Nice American Psycho quote!
The Insightful mod however is, interesting :)
So if I photoshopped a picture of a minor and smeared virtual poop on his/her face that would also be emotional abuse? Or if I photoshopped the photo of a skinny girl's head on a fat girl's body? I suppose that would qualify as harm as well.
Lets just go one further step for mental harm.
Say I took a picture of a fat child, and the child doesn't like the fact they are fat. The simple act of reality existing is emotionally harming, and being the one that pointed it out by taking a picture, that would mean jail time.
Did he publish? I can't see that in the article - even if he did, I think child porn would be the wrong law to use, because it's a different thing, nowhere near as serious as sexual abuse, and it would also set the precedent for simple possession being illegal.
Well there is your problem.
If he was prosecuted under the laws he broke, he wouldn't be in jail, and not much would have happened.
But when prosecuted under child porn laws, no matter how obvious to everyone involved that you had nothing to do with child porn, you are still going to prison for a long time.
That is the only goal of law these days. To put innocent people in jail for slave labor. Has nothing to do with protecting anything except their slave labor income rates.
Sad, messed up, and shouldn't be, but thats how it is.
The first time I dropped a 10 pound block of aluminum while taking it out of a nitrogen bucket I expected it to shatter, too. Then I realized I thought that because of hollywood.
In hindsight, they should now make all of the shuttles knobs out of those little rubber balls... Those things shatter nicely!
Otherwise trivial incidents over the course of the shuttle's working life would pose an unacceptable risk--anything breaking loose on re-entry, in particular, could scratch the surface if it was not heavily protected.
I'm fairly sure any and every time something 'broke loose on re-entry' inside of the cabin, they would definitely put a halt on future launches until they fixed that problem.
Typically all of the harshness happens _outside_ of the shuttle, not on the inside where this knob is affecting things.
If something outside the shuttle made it through all of the multiple layers of glass to get to the inside most layer (where the problem now is), that would near instantly cause full cabin depressurization, and loss of crew. It would not be flown again for years (if ever) if that happened anyway.
And they do state right in the article that they replace the outside most layer of glass on each launch anyway, so any damage that makes it through that one layer is basically gone before the next flight.
Excuse me, but when did school admins get police powers?
According to the court ruling, just today :{
It works for Apple.
What are you talking about? Apple doesn't lock you into buying apple batteries. In fact except for laptops, they don't even sell you the battery! You have to go 3rd party.
I also would think that a SSN is a Number for your Social Security. It should be used only for that. No excuses, no exception.
It is really confusing actually. If you believe the social security department, Sprint should be fined bundles of cash each time they ask this question of someone. If you believe the real world however, your SSN is the country wide standard identification number for you.
The back of my SSN card clearly states it is a crime to use that number for any purposes outside of social security, and is not to be used for identification purposes.
I keep my original card at home in a safe. This has always been 'best practices' recommended by the social security department.
http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10002.html#protect
From their own website:
Giving your number is voluntary even when you are asked for the number directly. If requested, you should ask:
* Why your number is needed;
* How your number will be used;
* What happens if you refuse; and
* What law requires you to give your number.
The answers to these questions can help you decide if you want to give your Social Security number. The decision is yours
I'm thinking I need to create a front/back print out of this card, but both sides are a copy of the back side :P
Then hand that out whenever I am asked for it.
Actually, I'm a subscriber. Thanks for the free attitude, though.
My mistake. I didn't realize Ray was involved with that.
I guess I don't know what financials for all involved are going on, so I'm going to back out now.
PS, my services for free attitude are always available! (Except holidays and standard blackout dates)