"Everyone wants the freedom to act as they wish within their own personal lives. What we don't want is for other people to have enough freedom that they can interfere detrimentally in our own lives. This is the basic calculus most of us go through."
I am sorry. I should have clarified. I define freedom as the the ability to do/think/say whatever you wish as long as you do 3 things.
1) You honour agreements you have made. 2) You do not initiate force against the person or property of another 3) You do not commit fraud
"1) Results in instant fragmentation of every country in the world into tiny, competing and opposing units each sporting their own political agenda."
Yes. This is a good thing. Competition, especially in a world as small as ours is today will allow the best "political units" to become prosperous while bad once to fail. Competition good, monopoly bad.
"Large areas of the world will be controlled by political and/or religious extremists of every stripe, coming to power and enforcing their creed by brutality and murder. Taliban galore!"
This is just flaimbait pure and simple. It is ridiculous and you know it! Are you seriously suggesting if Quebec, Newfoundland, BC, or Alberta separates from Canada we will become "controlled by political and/or religious extremists of every...". Or Alaska or Hawaii. Taiwan is much more free than the China it separated from. For a time the US was more free than the Britain it separated from. Sure, There are counterexamples, however there is a good reason for them. That is: In any political arrangement evil people have a nasty habit of coming to power. So cut your bullcrap, more central government will not solve anything. If even a sizable minority of a geographic region want to separate I for one say let them.
"2) Abide by this and guys like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc.. can do anything they want to their own people. After all it's all "internal affairs" - Tiananmen square anyone?"
That is because IT IS an internal affair. Is it one to be condemned? Absolutely! However, people have to CHOOSE to be free. It cannot and will not be forced upon them. China has its problems. However, the Chinese people have to solve those problems. Neither our guns nor our economic blockades can do anything but make the Chinese people worse off. The same goes for North Korea, Iraq and Troubled countries in Africa.
"If you want a recipe that works, then how about this? Foster democracy to give everyone a voice and get the people to believe in the democratic process as fair."
NO! Foster an attitude of freedom. I understand that many people believe that Democracy == freedom. This is absolutely false! I would even go as far as to say democracy is incompatible with freedom but that is an argument for another time. My point is this: If any nation really wants to be free the will find a way. In fact for people to WANT to be free is the only way for them to be free. This has always been true and always will be. The early US was largely free because those who lived there and then wanted to be. The Swiss are very free because the Swiss people guard their freedom jealously. The rest of the western world is rapidly ceasing to be free because WE NO LONGER WANT TO BE FREE!
"I really wish the world was as Fischer - price / tinker toy simple as you imagine it to be."
It really is fisher price simple. Every nation gets the government it allows itself to have. No nation can be held hostage against the will of its people. After all whose fist will they beat you with but the ones you provide. Who's boots will step on your neck but your own. After all, every dictator only has two arms and two feet. A dictator ignored is rendered harmless.
"Precedent or no, this guy no more deserves our sympathy or support than some guy selling bootlegged CDs on a street corner"
I actually happen to have a great deal of sympathy for the guy selling bootlegged CD's on the street corner. In my opinion, copyright (and patents) are completely indefensible.
Although it would be risky and require a bunch of sacrafice, have you considered taking your kids (Despite what the courts say it isn't kidnapping if your situation is really as you present it) and moving to somewhere without an extradition treaty to the US. Heck you could probably even come to Canada and drag out the extradition proceedings for 10 years.
/., My name is Greg "Devil Dog" Kumparak, and I'm an Architect of Infinity. I hope I'm not doing the rest of the team a disservice by attempting to speak for them.
I've been playing Castle Infinity since a very young age, and have volunteered on the game for quite a few years. Castle Infinity was developed around 1995/96 by Starwave. It grew a rather large fan base, which simply wasn't big enough to outweigh the cost of running it. After being transferred from company to company, it was eventually forgotten by all except for the original players.
Sure, company after company brought it up for 2-3 months, but it was only a tease. Each and every time, Castle Infinity was closed down. The blow of signing on to see "Sorry, we're closing down until further notice" hit some of us quite a few times. That was until we realized that Castle Infinity had been thrown away. I do quite honestly mean thrown away. In a trash can.
With a bit of good timing, and maybe a liiiiittle bit of fast driving, we got our hands on the server and a large portion of important data. (Thanks Kevin!) For the past few years, we've spent a large portion of our free time on rebuilding Castle Infinity. Months of server woes, countless bug fixes, and an unimaginable amount of stress on each and every member of the team.. and it's all lead up to this.
We're up, we're running, and we're ready to dump as much cold water on our server as it takes to keep it from melting. Theres a lot of work to be done, but trust me - we're trying as hard as we can. We have quite a lot in the works. We're constantly working on ways to make Castle Infinity feel much more "modern", giving it features to make it compare to the MMOGgs of today's standard.
Due to this, we're ALWAYS looking for a talented hand. Think you can help out in any way? Contact us. Don't worry, we're good people. With that, I welcome you. Welcome to the fruition of our noble quest. It's been a long, wild ride.
Uncountable heartfelt thanks to all at Slashdot for running this story.
First of all, I would like to state for the record that I am against all copyright law except insofar as it prevents fraud. (ie. You have no moral right to prevent me from doing whatever I wish with any work/idea I know/possess. However, I cannot claim that I created a work if I did not in fact do so)
That being said, in regards to copyright law as it stands (all Berne convention signatories) the parent is wrong. Speech may in fact be in-eligible for copyright. However, the prof most likely made notes, and otherwise prepared for his lecture. These are eligible for copyright and gain copyright protected status the momment they are created. The recording of the lecture could be considered a derivative work of the profs preparatory work. Thus both the recorder and the prof would have copy control over the recording and it would require both their consent to further distribute it.
IANAL. Any laywers or other IANAL's please correct me.
Canadians are not facing ANYTHING. The governing party is in the midst of the biggest political scandal in 50 years. In addition, they are a minority government. They were only able to pass the budget because the conservatives were not ready for an election and allowed it to pass. By all the indication of the polls the next government will be a Conservative minority. That government won't be able to pass a bill against murder let alone something as complex as copyright. Canadians, for the forseeble future, have a government that is for all intent and purposes, nuttered; Just as it should be:-)
"When it comes to a great picture there are two elements that come into play. You want the image to be rich in color, constrasty, and sharp. The other element that comes into play is the speed of the LCD and its ability to handle motion."
When it comes to a great picture there are two elements that come into play. You want the image to be rich in color, contrast,... and sharpness. The three, the three elements that make a good picture are color, contrast, sharpness,... and speed. The four, the four elements that make a good picture are color, contrast, sharpness, speed,... and its ability to handle motion. The five, The five elements that make a good picture are color, contrast, sharpness, speed, and its ability to handle motion.
A Man, if you pressure us, you just drive us away. We'll commit when we're ready, okay? Besides, what's so great about taking things out of beta? It ruins all the romance, the challenge, the possibilities, the right to explore. Carpe diem, ya know? Maybe we're jaded, but we've seen all these other companies leap headlong into 1.0, thinking their product is exactly what they've been dreaming of all their lives, that everything is perfect and hunky-dory and the next thing you know some vanilla copycat release from Redmond is kicking their butt, the Board is holding emergency meetings and the CEO is on CNBC blathering sweatily about "a new direction" and "getting back to basics." No thanks, man. We like our freedom.
Taco! Can we PLEASE abandon this horrid practice of nothing but bullshit all day on April fools. IT JUST ISN'T FUNNY ANYMORE! But I am sure all this hate won't help. Just fix you fscking site! please.
"Prosecutors throughout the country now worry about juries that refuse to accept eyewitness accounts or even outright confessions, and instead exclusively demand the kind of forensic evidence they see on CSI."
They make this sound like a bad thing. If I was ever on a jury I would sure as hell demand forensic evidence. Eyewitness accounts and confessions help but until you present me with concrete evidence I will still have a reasonable doubt. Peoples perceptions and memories are flawed. Confessions can be forced out of innocent people. Evidence doesn't lie, although it can be interpreted incorrectly.
Great! When can we get started? ALL of the things you listed either don't need to be done or can be better done by: States, Non-profits, companies, or individuals. Lets STOP spending. NOW!
"The libertarian wing of the faction is particularly blinded by their adherence to the doctrine of a self-correcting market because they refuse to recognize that, all other things being equal, wealth is itself a competitive advantage."
So what?
God forbid somebody has a "competitive advantage." People are different : THIS IS NOT A BAD THING! This does not imply that anyone is better only different. In fact people being different is a good thing as it lends itself to specialization.
I assume that you mean according to the laws on the books. However, as an American you have the AUTHORITY and the RESPONSIBILITY to uphold your constitution and your declaration of independence ABOVE any other laws. I believe that this and MANY OTHER LAWS do not honour those documents. It is your duty to remove any representative that votes in favor of such laws BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY including the use of force. As near as I can tell this includes all of them with the exception of Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.
ps: I am sorry for the offtopic post. However, the revolution IS coming whether you want it to or not. You best be prepared.
If this is real which is doubtfull it is probably a marketing trick. The drive manufactures proably make one drive and sell it as 3 different drives in different capacities.
I recently assisted in the transition of a small web/graphics design shop to linux. The employees reported that photoshop etc. actually ran faster using crossover office than under win2k. Something to think about anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
A post on slashdot which accuratly portrays the gospel!!!! I do believe I have now seen everything.
1) Find Al-Qaeda website.
2) Troll with goatse.
3) ???
4) FREEDOM!
--
Never attribute to malice that which can be adaquately explained by stupidity.
So is the origin of your idea malice or stupidity?
Microsoft is a monopoly. Microsoft has many copyrights and patents which are government granted monopolies.
I do believe that Goodwin's Law has just been invoked.
"Everyone wants the freedom to act as they wish within their own personal lives. What we don't want is for other people to have enough freedom that they can interfere detrimentally in our own lives. This is the basic calculus most of us go through."
I am sorry. I should have clarified. I define freedom as the the ability to do/think/say whatever you wish as long as you do 3 things.
1) You honour agreements you have made.
2) You do not initiate force against the person or property of another
3) You do not commit fraud
"1) Results in instant fragmentation of every country in the world into tiny, competing and opposing units each sporting their own political agenda."
...". Or Alaska or Hawaii. Taiwan is much more free than the China it separated from. For a time the US was more free than the Britain it separated from. Sure, There are counterexamples, however there is a good reason for them. That is: In any political arrangement evil people have a nasty habit of coming to power. So cut your bullcrap, more central government will not solve anything. If even a sizable minority of a geographic region want to separate I for one say let them.
Yes. This is a good thing. Competition, especially in a world as small as ours is today will allow the best "political units" to become prosperous while bad once to fail. Competition good, monopoly bad.
"Large areas of the world will be controlled by political and/or religious extremists of every stripe, coming to power and enforcing their creed by brutality and murder. Taliban galore!"
This is just flaimbait pure and simple. It is ridiculous and you know it! Are you seriously suggesting if Quebec, Newfoundland, BC, or Alberta separates from Canada we will become "controlled by political and/or religious extremists of every
"2) Abide by this and guys like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc.. can do anything they want to their own people. After all it's all "internal affairs" - Tiananmen square anyone?"
That is because IT IS an internal affair. Is it one to be condemned? Absolutely! However, people have to CHOOSE to be free. It cannot and will not be forced upon them. China has its problems. However, the Chinese people have to solve those problems. Neither our guns nor our economic blockades can do anything but make the Chinese people worse off. The same goes for North Korea, Iraq and Troubled countries in Africa.
"If you want a recipe that works, then how about this? Foster democracy to give everyone a voice and get the people to believe in the democratic process as fair."
NO! Foster an attitude of freedom. I understand that many people believe that Democracy == freedom. This is absolutely false! I would even go as far as to say democracy is incompatible with freedom but that is an argument for another time. My point is this: If any nation really wants to be free the will find a way. In fact for people to WANT to be free is the only way for them to be free. This has always been true and always will be. The early US was largely free because those who lived there and then wanted to be. The Swiss are very free because the Swiss people guard their freedom jealously. The rest of the western world is rapidly ceasing to be free because WE NO LONGER WANT TO BE FREE!
"I really wish the world was as Fischer - price / tinker toy simple as you imagine it to be."
It really is fisher price simple. Every nation gets the government it allows itself to have. No nation can be held hostage against the will of its people. After all whose fist will they beat you with but the ones you provide. Who's boots will step on your neck but your own. After all, every dictator only has two arms and two feet. A dictator ignored is rendered harmless.
"Precedent or no, this guy no more deserves our sympathy or support than some guy selling bootlegged CDs on a street corner"
I actually happen to have a great deal of sympathy for the guy selling bootlegged CD's on the street corner. In my opinion, copyright (and patents) are completely indefensible.
Although it would be risky and require a bunch of sacrafice, have you considered taking your kids (Despite what the courts say it isn't kidnapping if your situation is really as you present it) and moving to somewhere without an extradition treaty to the US. Heck you could probably even come to Canada and drag out the extradition proceedings for 10 years.
/., My name is Greg "Devil Dog" Kumparak, and I'm an Architect of Infinity. I hope I'm not doing the rest of the team a disservice by attempting to speak for them.
I've been playing Castle Infinity since a very young age, and have volunteered on the game for quite a few years. Castle Infinity was developed around 1995/96 by Starwave. It grew a rather large fan base, which simply wasn't big enough to outweigh the cost of running it. After being transferred from company to company, it was eventually forgotten by all except for the original players.
Sure, company after company brought it up for 2-3 months, but it was only a tease. Each and every time, Castle Infinity was closed down. The blow of signing on to see "Sorry, we're closing down until further notice" hit some of us quite a few times. That was until we realized that Castle Infinity had been thrown away. I do quite honestly mean thrown away. In a trash can.
With a bit of good timing, and maybe a liiiiittle bit of fast driving, we got our hands on the server and a large portion of important data. (Thanks Kevin!) For the past few years, we've spent a large portion of our free time on rebuilding Castle Infinity. Months of server woes, countless bug fixes, and an unimaginable amount of stress on each and every member of the team.. and it's all lead up to this.
We're up, we're running, and we're ready to dump as much cold water on our server as it takes to keep it from melting. Theres a lot of work to be done, but trust me - we're trying as hard as we can. We have quite a lot in the works. We're constantly working on ways to make Castle Infinity feel much more "modern", giving it features to make it compare to the MMOGgs of today's standard.
Due to this, we're ALWAYS looking for a talented hand. Think you can help out in any way? Contact us. Don't worry, we're good people. With that, I welcome you. Welcome to the fruition of our noble quest. It's been a long, wild ride.
Uncountable heartfelt thanks to all at Slashdot for running this story.
Greg Kumparak
Architect of Infinity
First of all, I would like to state for the record that I am against all copyright law except insofar as it prevents fraud. (ie. You have no moral right to prevent me from doing whatever I wish with any work/idea I know/possess. However, I cannot claim that I created a work if I did not in fact do so)
That being said, in regards to copyright law as it stands (all Berne convention signatories) the parent is wrong. Speech may in fact be in-eligible for copyright. However, the prof most likely made notes, and otherwise prepared for his lecture. These are eligible for copyright and gain copyright protected status the momment they are created. The recording of the lecture could be considered a derivative work of the profs preparatory work. Thus both the recorder and the prof would have copy control over the recording and it would require both their consent to further distribute it.
IANAL. Any laywers or other IANAL's please correct me.
"Canadians May Face 25% Download Tariff"
:-)
Canadians are not facing ANYTHING. The governing party is in the midst of the biggest political scandal in 50 years. In addition, they are a minority government. They were only able to pass the budget because the conservatives were not ready for an election and allowed it to pass. By all the indication of the polls the next government will be a Conservative minority. That government won't be able to pass a bill against murder let alone something as complex as copyright. Canadians, for the forseeble future, have a government that is for all intent and purposes, nuttered; Just as it should be
"When it comes to a great picture there are two elements that come into play. You want the image to be rich in color, constrasty, and sharp. The other element that comes into play is the speed of the LCD and its ability to handle motion."
... and sharpness. The three, the three elements that make a good picture are color, contrast, sharpness, ... and speed. The four, the four elements that make a good picture are color, contrast, sharpness, speed, ... and its ability to handle motion. The five, The five elements that make a good picture are color, contrast, sharpness, speed, and its ability to handle motion.
When it comes to a great picture there are two elements that come into play. You want the image to be rich in color, contrast,
(With apologies to Monty Python)
Q When will you take Google Gulp out of beta?
A Man, if you pressure us, you just drive us away. We'll commit when we're ready, okay? Besides, what's so great about taking things out of beta? It ruins all the romance, the challenge, the possibilities, the right to explore. Carpe diem, ya know? Maybe we're jaded, but we've seen all these other companies leap headlong into 1.0, thinking their product is exactly what they've been dreaming of all their lives, that everything is perfect and hunky-dory and the next thing you know some vanilla copycat release from Redmond is kicking their butt, the Board is holding emergency meetings and the CEO is on CNBC blathering sweatily about "a new direction" and "getting back to basics." No thanks, man. We like our freedom.
Taco! Can we PLEASE abandon this horrid practice of nothing but bullshit all day on April fools. IT JUST ISN'T FUNNY ANYMORE! But I am sure all this hate won't help. Just fix you fscking site! please.
Yeah. WoW is a great ga[World server is down]
"Prosecutors throughout the country now worry about juries that refuse to accept eyewitness accounts or even outright confessions, and instead exclusively demand the kind of forensic evidence they see on CSI."
They make this sound like a bad thing. If I was ever on a jury I would sure as hell demand forensic evidence. Eyewitness accounts and confessions help but until you present me with concrete evidence I will still have a reasonable doubt. Peoples perceptions and memories are flawed. Confessions can be forced out of innocent people. Evidence doesn't lie, although it can be interpreted incorrectly.
Apple and Microsoft are second rate services.
After using allofmp3.com I would never use anything else.
Pay per MB.
No DRM
Very large (but admitidly incomplete) collection.
Songs encoded as you order them. Choose from MP3, OGG, AAC, FLAC, and more.
I spent more in 2 hours at the site than I have in my entire life previously. When you are paying $.001 a megabyte that is saying something.
"it is quite a bit smaller than existing 2.5" drives."
.7"?
Say about
Great! When can we get started? ALL of the things you listed either don't need to be done or can be better done by: States, Non-profits, companies, or individuals. Lets STOP spending. NOW!
"The libertarian wing of the faction is particularly blinded by their adherence to the doctrine of a self-correcting market because they refuse to recognize that, all other things being equal, wealth is itself a competitive advantage."
So what?
God forbid somebody has a "competitive advantage." People are different : THIS IS NOT A BAD THING! This does not imply that anyone is better only different. In fact people being different is a good thing as it lends itself to specialization.
"* legally"
I assume that you mean according to the laws on the books. However, as an American you have the AUTHORITY and the RESPONSIBILITY to uphold your constitution and your declaration of independence ABOVE any other laws. I believe that this and MANY OTHER LAWS do not honour those documents. It is your duty to remove any representative that votes in favor of such laws BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY including the use of force. As near as I can tell this includes all of them with the exception of Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.
ps: I am sorry for the offtopic post. However, the revolution IS coming whether you want it to or not. You best be prepared.
Sen. Ron Paul
He is a Libertarian in a Republican's cloths. He is my very last hope for the american system.
If this is real which is doubtfull it is probably a marketing trick. The drive manufactures proably make one drive and sell it as 3 different drives in different capacities.
I recently assisted in the transition of a small web/graphics design shop to linux. The employees reported that photoshop etc. actually ran faster using crossover office than under win2k. Something to think about anyway.
Unless of course you are Jesus.