"It would probably be simpler to spend money on enforcing work permit laws and so force, making illegal border crossings a less attractive activity."
That still leaves large swathes of border uncontrolled. Doing both, and altering the idiotic War on (Some) Drugs would make a meaningful difference in reducing the incentive to illicit border crossing.
"This is not the slashdot I know and love. Where are all the calls to open source the project for all the eleventy billion reasons that F/OSS is superior in every way imaginable?!!?!?!?"
Sell the company, take the money, then kick back and write F/OSS for the personal strokage.
Anyone with imagination can find something rewarding to do if they have money.
Not everyone with imagination can necessarily obtain money, so get the money when the getting is good.
"But you'd think the Germans of all people would understand the risks of having an overly powerful government and a largely unarmed populace."
That wasn't precisely the problem for Germany. The problem for the majority, lest we forget, is that they lost WWII. People don't fight that ferociously for an ideology they don't buy into.
Given the enormous post-WWII effort by the Allies to condition Germans to be peaceful and docile by relentlessly reminding them of the Nazi period, we should not be surprised if their government makes every effort to wean them from violent play.
"The whole "illegal enemy combatant" thing is immoral regardless of whether the "attacks" are physical attacks or just attempts made to disrupt digital communications. "
If we are supposed to follow the rules of war, why shouldn't our unconventional opponents?
"For 150 dollars an hour, a lawyer will never tell you any idea of yours is bad, even if it's suing McDonalds because your hot coffee is (gasp!) HOT, and should not have been poured all over your crotch."
For free, any number of internet denizens will propagate distortions and urban legends.
Here's what the talk show pundits and columnists neglected to mention about the McDonalds coffee burn case:
79 year old Stella Liebeck suffered third degree burns on her groin and inner thighs while trying to add sugar to her coffee at a McDonalds drive through. Third degree burns are the most serious kind of burn. McDonalds knew it had a problem. There were at least 700 previous cases of scalding coffee incidents at McDonalds before Liebeck's case. McDonalds had settled many claim before but refused Liebeck's request for $20,000 compensation, forcing the case into court. Lawyers found that McDonalds makes its coffee 30-50 degrees hotter than other restaurants, about 190 degrees. Doctors testified that it only takes 2-7 seconds to cause a third degree burn at 190 degrees. McDonalds knew its coffee was exceptionally hot but testified that they had never consulted with burn specialist. The Shriner Burn Institute had previously warned McDonalds not to serve coffee above 130 degrees. And so the jury came back with a decision- $160,000 for compensatory damages. But because McDonalds was guilty of "willful, reckless, malicious or wanton conduct" punitive damages were also applied. The jury set the award at $2.7 million. The judge then reduced the fine to less than half a million. Ms. Liebeck then settled with McDonalds for a sum reported to be much less than a half million dollars. McDonald's coffee is now sold at the same temperature as most other restaurants. "
For those who are motivated to secure their files, it would be easy enough to conceal a wireless server where no one searching for a computer would think to look.
It would be simple to toss a server into a 1U audio equipment case and install that into a stereo rack, for example. Computers don't need to look like computers.
For the paranoid, stick a silent, wireless server in the ceiling and power it via a light switch wired to cut power to the server when the light is turned on. Who is going to turn out the lights to search your home, unless they are using Luminol to look for blood?
I treat any hard drive I discard to a couple of shots with a hand sledge. The defaulting to a techy solution like wiping is understandable, but why bother?
"I guess we'll need to format them in a purifying fire then."
Hard drives are of trivial value, as are obsolete computers. Mandate that every Federal agency destroy all their discarded computers by shredding. Don't try to save a nickel, just destroy the machine. It is trivially easy. Just do it.
"Or was your "legal citation needed" simply a reference to the fact that we'd need some sort of legal precedence set in order to make said space available to protesters?"
Yes. There is no guarantee of public access to all properties rented by the government. The people have rights, landlords are also of "the people", and the duties of government as a tenant should be set out in law to protect both protestors and property owners
"I found it ironic that as a service member, I had less freedoms available to me. The freedom of speech, needing to ask for permission to get married, etc. Throw in the the base clubs weren't allowed to have "offensive" music (and of course the sensitive types wouldn't have the decency to stay home)./sigh. Buy all the liquor, tobacco and bibles you want, but no porn!"
Lack of porn at the BX/PX and boring NCO clubs were in my experience more than offset by the _massive_ partying elsewhere on base in housing and dorms. Stuff not being sold on-base is hardly a freedom restriction. Freedom of speech restrictions on service members are quite modest (see UCMJ for details).
"so long as our spending is a mixture of "what Raytheon feels like producing" and "the ultimate weapon against the forces of the evil empire rolling across Europe in alternate-1979"
Note that neither of these reflected the icky counterinsurgency mission, which was unfashionable until recently.
Now the armored car fad (LAV/Stryker/MRAP-anything but more effective tracked vehicles we already own hence can't be resold to us) is upon us. When these roadbound police trucks fail (as they must) at expeditionary warfare, then of course we must build porkulent FCS...
This is why we need school choice vouchers. Those who are motivated to rescue their kids from the system should not have to fund it when they are paying for an alternative.
We cannot fix the public school system because that requires power we will never have. We should admit that and use school choice legislation so we can have some opportunity for the few. Society is led by the few achievers, not the mass of beasts. We dump millions into trying to educate retards, so why not let those motivated to opt out and improve their childrens chances do so?
The military of all customers is in the ideal position to do this. Back in The Day when all we had were green screen Unix terminals, life was simple and users didn't break the system. Conversion is merely of giving orders to people who obey them. The military should select more secure, Open alternatives which it can tweak and control, then order users to change.
Slashdot Mirror
"If I gave you a house on a rent-free 12 month lease would you piss and whine about how inconvenient moving out would be?"
Not if you pay for naked odalisques to carry me out on a sedan chair.
Otherwise, yes.
"I wonder if it is still around. I'd like to give Ubuntu a try on it."
Damn Small Linux would be a better fit for that hardware.
"It would probably be simpler to spend money on enforcing work permit laws and so force, making illegal border crossings a less attractive activity."
That still leaves large swathes of border uncontrolled. Doing both, and altering the idiotic War on (Some) Drugs would make a meaningful difference in reducing the incentive to illicit border crossing.
In the Slashdot world, Western countries do not belong to their citizens if proles from elsewhere want in.
Only government and business can be enemies. We must renounce all exclusivity and share everything we have with whoever else wants it on their terms.
"This is not the slashdot I know and love. Where are all the calls to open source the project for all the eleventy billion reasons that F/OSS is superior in every way imaginable?!!?!?!?"
Sell the company, take the money, then kick back and write F/OSS for the personal strokage.
Anyone with imagination can find something rewarding to do if they have money.
Not everyone with imagination can necessarily obtain money, so get the money when the getting is good.
"But you'd think the Germans of all people would understand the risks of having an overly powerful government and a largely unarmed populace."
That wasn't precisely the problem for Germany. The problem for the majority, lest we forget, is that they lost WWII. People don't fight that ferociously for an ideology they don't buy into.
Given the enormous post-WWII effort by the Allies to condition Germans to be peaceful and docile by relentlessly reminding them of the Nazi period, we should not be surprised if their government makes every effort to wean them from violent play.
"The whole "illegal enemy combatant" thing is immoral regardless of whether the "attacks" are physical attacks or just attempts made to disrupt digital communications. "
If we are supposed to follow the rules of war, why shouldn't our unconventional opponents?
"For 150 dollars an hour, a lawyer will never tell you any idea of yours is bad, even if it's suing McDonalds because your hot coffee is (gasp!) HOT, and should not have been poured all over your crotch."
For free, any number of internet denizens will propagate distortions and urban legends.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0122-11.htm
"Third Degree Burns
Here's what the talk show pundits and columnists neglected to mention about the McDonalds coffee burn case:
79 year old Stella Liebeck suffered third degree burns on her groin and inner thighs while trying to add sugar to her coffee at a McDonalds drive through. Third degree burns are the most serious kind of burn. McDonalds knew it had a problem. There were at least 700 previous cases of scalding coffee incidents at McDonalds before Liebeck's case. McDonalds had settled many claim before but refused Liebeck's request for $20,000 compensation, forcing the case into court. Lawyers found that McDonalds makes its coffee 30-50 degrees hotter than other restaurants, about 190 degrees. Doctors testified that it only takes 2-7 seconds to cause a third degree burn at 190 degrees. McDonalds knew its coffee was exceptionally hot but testified that they had never consulted with burn specialist. The Shriner Burn Institute had previously warned McDonalds not to serve coffee above 130 degrees. And so the jury came back with a decision- $160,000 for compensatory damages. But because McDonalds was guilty of "willful, reckless, malicious or wanton conduct" punitive damages were also applied. The jury set the award at $2.7 million. The judge then reduced the fine to less than half a million. Ms. Liebeck then settled with McDonalds for a sum reported to be much less than a half million dollars. McDonald's coffee is now sold at the same temperature as most other restaurants. "
"Do we cheer for destroying 100000 infested Windows installations, or do rage at the crapware producers who make this possible..."
Those responses are not mutually exclusive.
I've lived in SC for more than 20 years, work in vocational education, and strongly agree with you.
For those who are motivated to secure their files, it would be easy enough to conceal a wireless server where no one searching for a computer would think to look.
It would be simple to toss a server into a 1U audio equipment case and install that into a stereo rack, for example. Computers don't need to look like computers.
For the paranoid, stick a silent, wireless server in the ceiling and power it via a light switch wired to cut power to the server when the light is turned on. Who is going to turn out the lights to search your home, unless they are using Luminol to look for blood?
I treat any hard drive I discard to a couple of shots with a hand sledge.
The defaulting to a techy solution like wiping is understandable, but why bother?
"I guess we'll need to format them in a purifying fire then."
Hard drives are of trivial value, as are obsolete computers. Mandate that every Federal agency destroy all their discarded computers by shredding. Don't try to save a nickel, just destroy the machine. It is trivially easy. Just do it.
"Or was your "legal citation needed" simply a reference to the fact that we'd need some sort of legal precedence set in order to make said space available to protesters?"
Yes. There is no guarantee of public access to all properties rented by the government. The people have rights, landlords are also of "the people", and the duties of government as a tenant should be set out in law to protect both protestors and property owners
"Destroy it and we might never know."
Disassemble it thoroughly during demolition, dig up any interesting areas, then level the place afterwards.
There is nothing architecturally compelling about the site.
"I found it ironic that as a service member, I had less freedoms available to me. The freedom of speech, needing to ask for permission to get married, etc. Throw in the the base clubs weren't allowed to have "offensive" music (and of course the sensitive types wouldn't have the decency to stay home). /sigh. Buy all the liquor, tobacco and bibles you want, but no porn!"
Lack of porn at the BX/PX and boring NCO clubs were in my experience more than offset by the _massive_ partying elsewhere on base in housing and dorms. Stuff not being sold on-base is hardly a freedom restriction. Freedom of speech restrictions on service members are quite modest (see UCMJ for details).
"We have executed people for doing the same thing to our soldiers."
Link please?
"Do people really think war veterans care if you play a video game about a battle they were in?"
Many thousands of G.I.s are gamers themselves, and gaming is popular both at home station and on deployments.
"If the government rents space somewhere, the space around its entrance should become available to protesters, same as if the government owned it."
Legal citation needed.
"so long as our spending is a mixture of "what Raytheon feels like producing" and "the ultimate weapon against the forces of the evil empire rolling across Europe in alternate-1979"
Note that neither of these reflected the icky counterinsurgency mission, which was unfashionable until recently.
Now the armored car fad (LAV/Stryker/MRAP-anything but more effective tracked vehicles we already own hence can't be resold to us) is upon us. When these roadbound police trucks fail (as they must) at expeditionary warfare, then of course we must build porkulent FCS...
This is why we need school choice vouchers. Those who are motivated to rescue their kids from the system should not have to fund it when they are paying for an alternative.
We cannot fix the public school system because that requires power we will never have. We should admit that and use school choice legislation so we can have some opportunity for the few. Society is led by the few achievers, not the mass of beasts. We dump millions into trying to educate retards, so why not let those motivated to opt out and improve their childrens chances do so?
"You must be really, really clumsy."
No, they aren't sealed and I spend lots of time on Usenet.
Perhaps an upside-down sneeze guard is in order.
"In other words, not worth doing unless you possess a soul."
Or would like to be paid in order to possess food, clothing, and shelter.
""Having the most secure Windows ever" does not equate to having secure Windows."
"Our Nomex gasoline-soaked jock strap is much safer than our old cotton gasoline-soaked jock straps for running through camp fires!"
"Stop purchasing Microsoft products. Duh."
The military of all customers is in the ideal position to do this.
Back in The Day when all we had were green screen Unix terminals, life was simple and users didn't break the system.
Conversion is merely of giving orders to people who obey them. The military should select more secure, Open alternatives which it can tweak and control, then order users to change.