There was a circuit split on a similar issue of whether nude photos of children based on "simulated" children were obscene, i.e. no actual children involved. (Raphael's Madonna with the Goldfinch???) There was more than one circuit that decided that question in the affirmative.
So where do we draw the line? If I draw some child having sex, with pencil and paper (and I'm no artist) will I be prosecuted? What's the difference between that and someone who has M4D 5K1775 with Photoshop/Gimp, and can make it look lifelike? Why should one be prosecuted over the other? Especially when children aren't being hurt?
Why do we lust after children, anyway? That's the bigger issue, and someone described it to me a few months ago in a way that makes a lot of sense. My great-grandmother got married at age 12, which these days would be considered abuse.
But the reality is (a reality that we've covered over with our laws and society, but a reality that is wired into us and we cannot effectively control), men want the youngest woman possible who is fertile (and a virgin), because then he'll be guaranteed that the children he's raising are his own, and his genes will propagate. It's "simple" genetics and economics: my genes want to make more of themselves, and I don't want to waste my resources on someone else's genes. By the time she's 18, it's already "too late" because likely she'll have had sex with her peer group; so the law effectively attempts to eliminate competition of the "alpha male pack leader" who rightly deserves it (think Clinton), in favor of the runt of the litter.
Back to the issue, I'd love to set up a non-profit which collected money to be spent on legal issues. The only use of funds would be to mount lawsuits to remove laws from the books. There are far too many obsolete, worthless, and mindlessly punitive laws that exist, and the bad apples definitely spoil the bunch -- if some laws are not respected nor prosecuted, then why obey the other ones?
I'm specifically thinking of a law in some southern state, which stated "bees are not allowed to fly less than 6 feet above the pavement within city limits." Now, this seems farcical on its face, but thinking a bit, I believe that there was a beekeeper who was near the city, and people were getting stung and upset so they passed that law.
Fast forward decades, and we have a ridiculous law that sounds just like that state legislature that declared Pi to be 3 because it made calculations easier. I mean, they could have just passed a law saying "you cannot raise bees within X miles of the city" but instead they basically submarined him. Kinda neat in a tactical sense but that kind of game should be reserved for politics, not law (and yes, I realize that there is a significant overlap). Law is code. I'll call my non-profit "Refactoring Law" or something like that. "The Law Refactory"?
Every dollar a person or group donates will have one "vote" as to which law to eliminate. Once enough donations have come in to begin the effort, we'll start the process of removing the law. I don't know how much that would be; I'm guessing something like $10,000 per law, so it would make sense to go after the ones that do the most economic harm, like laws against victimless crimes. (Which, since they have no victims, should not be crimes -- and the "crime" could be taxed if it was legitimate, providing income to the state instead of the state having to throw dollar after dollar trying to enforce something that people choose to do, like exchange money for sex (what is marriage?) or smoke pot (less harmful than beer or cigarettes).)
It would be nice to be able to grow this into something sustainable, and make a living while doing good. But since I'm struggling as it is now, I'll give my idea out to the masses and if someone else picks it up and runs with it, power to you! Just let me know about it so I can thank you.;-)
OP said install OpenOffice, that's true; but he also said "run whatever you can with WINE from Windows partition." I took this to mean that "all" we have to do is beef up WINE support so that all documented and undocumented API calls are implemented, and magically all Windows applications will run on Linux.
Then we can rip off the tablecloth without disturbing the silverware, and slide another one in. Users won't notice because the UI will be identical and it'll run all their old programs.
Yes, it's a pipe dream I've had for several years, and I lack both the time and money to implement something like this. But, just like nanotechnology, it's something we can discuss as a worthy goal.
01234567890123456789 I never thought that you would love me the way that you do. 01234567890123456789 I never thought that you would love me half as much as I do. 01234567890123456789 You say you wanna know everything about me. Well here you go. 01234567890123456789 You say you couldn't live your life without me. I don't know. 01234567890123456789 But if you want it girl, you've got it, 01234567890123456789 it's all right here, 01234567890123456789 in my box set.
01234567890123456789 I never thought that words like product could ever leave my lips, 01234567890123456789 but something happened to me somewhere that made me lose my grip. 01234567890123456789 Maybe it's a lack of inspiration that makes me stoop, 01234567890123456789 or maybe it's a lack of remuneration; I can't recoup. 01234567890123456789 But if you want it folks, you got it; 01234567890123456789 it's all right here in my box set.
01234567890123456789 Disc One 01234567890123456789 it's where we've begun, it's all our greatest hits, 01234567890123456789 and if you are a fan then you know that you've already got 'em.
01234567890123456789 Disc Two 01234567890123456789 it was all brand new, an album's worth of songs, 01234567890123456789 but we had to leave the whole disc blank 'cause 01234567890123456789 some other label bought 'em.
01234567890123456789 Disc Three 01234567890123456789 This is really me in a grade school play; 01234567890123456789 I had about a hundred thousand lines but of course I forgot 'em.
01234567890123456789 I never thought there'd be days like this, there was always someone at my door. 01234567890123456789 I never thought I would ever miss, and the crowd would always holler for more. 01234567890123456789 But now it seems all that people want is what I used to be, 01234567890123456789 and every time I try to do something new, 01234567890123456789 all they want is 1973.
01234567890123456789 I never thought I'd be regretful of all my past success. 01234567890123456789 But some stupid number one hit single has got me in this mess. 01234567890123456789 You can put it on every compilation - that's all right. 01234567890123456789 You can hear it on the oldies radio station every night. 01234567890123456789 And if you want it again, you got it 01234567890123456789 it's right here in my box set.
01234567890123456789 Disc Four 01234567890123456789 Never released before, and you can tell why. 01234567890123456789 it's just some demos I recorded in my basement.
01234567890123456789 Disc Five 01234567890123456789 I was barely alive, I was coughing up a lung, 01234567890123456789 so they had to use a special computer as my replacement.
01234567890123456789 Disc Six 01234567890123456789 A dance remix, so I can catch the latest trend 01234567890123456789 and it'll make you scratch your head and wonder 01234567890123456789 where my taste went.
01234567890123456789 So now my fans are crying sellout, 01234567890123456789 they say that I've lost my touch. 01234567890123456789 They say I should just get the hell out, 01234567890123456789 before I do too much. 01234567890123456789 Hear my songs in an ad for a bathroom cleanser - 01234567890123456789 they say it's greed, 01234567890123456789 And now I'm wondering where my friends are in this time of need. 01234567890123456789 But if you change your mind
I work for a company which sells PCs retail, we've had a couple computers which had worms *OUT OF THE BOX* (brand new machines, never openend. We're still trying to figure that out.
If packets or ACKs were signed with a key generated on the MAC, the traffic could be controlled.
But you can spoof the MAC. Not sure the proper way to do it for actual devices, but under VMware there's a setting in the configuration file for the virtual NIC's MAC. So just run your wireless network from a VM and you can get Joe Schmoe to pay your bills.
Not that I'm advocating this, by the way; I'm making light of a an insecure proposal. I hope they don't use the MAC address!
If anything, the limitation in budget can be their deciding advantage. Through limitation comes creativity.
I'll second this. I worked for a company in the mid-90s which was underfunded, and had slow networks, modems and computers. The protocol we created was designed to work well on our setup, so once it got into the field, it flew.
If we had had tons of cash to build a great datacenter, we would not have created as good a product.
I love that. Like the "pained/starving artist" effect.
Actually I have found cheaper prices than Pricewatch for 250 GB 7200 RPM 8 MB cache drives (Western Digital). They're $150-160, after taking the rebate into account (which means you're out an extra $90 for a short period of time).
Cheapest on Pricewatch is $203.
I've recently lost an 80 GB drive, so my Christmas present to myself is a RAID-5 array of 4 x 250 GB drives, so I'll have 750 GB of redundant storage. Should be enough for a couple years, at least.;-)
And although I thought I'd get a better deal ordering them, I saw the rebates and decided to support my local merchants.
Now, on things like media (CD-R, DVD+/-R, etc.), you can't beat the Internet. Plus they don't have 90 min CD-Rs anywhere locally.
Why would 'Open Source Movie Making' automatically be better than Hollywood's current trend of designing by committe? Sorry to be pessimistic, but I imagine something very sterile coming out of a project like this.
I actually interpreted it differently: using Open Source to provide a decent infrastructure for movie making. So you could render frames using an "MPAA@home" cluster in as close to real-time as possible. This would allow the creative types to design movies as fast as they could write the scripts and move the "actors" (digitally created, of course).
And people who are good at imitations could record several different "vocal styles" for the computer to chew on, so you could have realistic voices without (I suppose) violating any IP. Or get the actual actors to donate a few hours of their time to reading into a microphone, to help out the cause. Or even pay them, but then the OSS project would require funding.
I completely agree that the creativity is best reserved in the hands of a single person, or small group. But this would not at all prevent people from making edits to what others have published, similar to the people who removed Jar Jar in "The Phantom Edit".
A politician could get into trouble over a bullet. The money is already approved, and awarding it has no negative fiscal realities for anyone, possibly excepting the taxpayers.
True. But, I'm a US taxpayer, and I'd much rather pay.000000001c for a bullet than $25 for my share of the reward.
And it sends a message to the tattletales: cut it the fuck out.
Saying "The money is already approved" is somewhat repulsive to me. "The money" for mohair subsidies is already approved as well. That doesn't make it any more palatable.
A title selling 700,000 on the PC is like a title selling a couple million on a console.
I don't understand. Are you saying margins are better on the PC? Or are you saying that, given equivalent marketing dollars, the PC sells less units?
And are the two circles really similar sets, or somewhat disjoint? I.e., if you release for both, might you sell a couple million on the console and 700,000 on the PC?
Like it or not, we are manipulated every day by hucksters, salesmen, advertisers, even charities.
(Emphasis added.)
I commute to Boston. Every day I get off at North Station and there's this annoying guy scowling at everyone, ringing a fucking bell trying to get you to give to the Salvation Army or some fucking thing. I'd pay him to stop ringing the bell but I'm out of there in less than a minute.
At the other end (since that's where the bathroom is and I've had occassion to use it in the last week) is a lady with actual jingle bells, like 5 bells on a chain, that's so much nicer. I gave her a couple bucks.
Yes, charities are competing for my money, but give me a smile and a less annoying noise and you'll get my charity dollars.
Worry about guvmint putting RFIDs in the drinking water. Like they currently do with fluoride, "for our benefit."
Yes, I realize that then the RFID tags would be random. But... then they could start collecting data, and ultimately match us up, just like DNA evidence is "random" until they find a match.
Why? Because then it takes the "editing" function away from the "editors." Your suggestion has been suggested many times over the years.
It'll never happen.
You want something like that, go to k5. But there's a lot less readership there so the homepage tends to change a lot less. (Me, I frequent/. and visit k5 once every 6 months or so.)
There's a gem every once in a while though; if you like science ficition and the Singularity, google for "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect" (I've googled for you; I love that story, and it seems he's working on a sequel).
Won't have much call for that at work, I'd imagine, but it's good to know. I'll look into those tools, especially for the CDs that are failing under Undisker.
I'll add one more thing: "Your husband, as someone willing to put more than Slashdot karma points on the line for what he believed in, grew a pair and served, which is more than I ever did."
I saw a bumper sticker last night while waiting for someone, and it stuck in my head: "For those who fought for freedom, it is a flavor the rest will never understand." I'm one of those behind a keyboard (I'm physically disabled and thus couldn't join up, much as I wanted to), so I'm in your position but completely understand.
The bottom 40% of the population in the US controls about 1% of the money, yet they *pay* about 2% of the taxes. By comparison, the top 1% controls about 36% of the money, and they pay about 36% of the taxes. Dollar for dollar this means that the upper 1% pay half as much in taxes as the bottom 40%.
Maybe I'm picking nits, but isn't taxation based on the amount of money you earn, rather than the amount of money you control?
And yes, if you earn more than you spend then the amount of money you control tends to grow, year after year. So "the rich" are better off in that respect, as few of them live paycheck-to-paycheck like the rest of us.
I'm somewhat surprised that we got Sadaam before we got Osama. Sadaam had more loyal supporters, but I heard that his wife gave him up hoping to get the $25 million.
Perhaps I'm cynical, but a bullet costs a lot less than $25 million. Taking bets on her surviving the next week?
(See my reply to the response to you, I explain how I use it at work.)
Why do you say ISO and bin/cue files are "the most basic"? What does Alcohol or CloneCD create that is more advanced, and what's the difference? Undisker does most everything for me (except if memory serves Office XP with SP2, which I had to use Nero for; see my other post). But if another tool is superior I'd like to know about it. Thanks!
I agree that VMware isn't really designed for games; it was an example which I know a lot about because I use it all day to test new builds. It's a great productivity enhancer; I can test in 3 VMs and although running multiple VMs slows the system down, I still end up being 1.5 to 2 times more productive than doing it locally. Plus I can use the Host OS to do other productivity stuff while it's installing in the VM, like email, writing process documents, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
Why do we lust after children, anyway? That's the bigger issue, and someone described it to me a few months ago in a way that makes a lot of sense. My great-grandmother got married at age 12, which these days would be considered abuse.
But the reality is (a reality that we've covered over with our laws and society, but a reality that is wired into us and we cannot effectively control), men want the youngest woman possible who is fertile (and a virgin), because then he'll be guaranteed that the children he's raising are his own, and his genes will propagate. It's "simple" genetics and economics: my genes want to make more of themselves, and I don't want to waste my resources on someone else's genes. By the time she's 18, it's already "too late" because likely she'll have had sex with her peer group; so the law effectively attempts to eliminate competition of the "alpha male pack leader" who rightly deserves it (think Clinton), in favor of the runt of the litter.
Back to the issue, I'd love to set up a non-profit which collected money to be spent on legal issues. The only use of funds would be to mount lawsuits to remove laws from the books. There are far too many obsolete, worthless, and mindlessly punitive laws that exist, and the bad apples definitely spoil the bunch -- if some laws are not respected nor prosecuted, then why obey the other ones?
I'm specifically thinking of a law in some southern state, which stated "bees are not allowed to fly less than 6 feet above the pavement within city limits." Now, this seems farcical on its face, but thinking a bit, I believe that there was a beekeeper who was near the city, and people were getting stung and upset so they passed that law.
Fast forward decades, and we have a ridiculous law that sounds just like that state legislature that declared Pi to be 3 because it made calculations easier. I mean, they could have just passed a law saying "you cannot raise bees within X miles of the city" but instead they basically submarined him. Kinda neat in a tactical sense but that kind of game should be reserved for politics, not law (and yes, I realize that there is a significant overlap). Law is code. I'll call my non-profit "Refactoring Law" or something like that. "The Law Refactory"?
Every dollar a person or group donates will have one "vote" as to which law to eliminate. Once enough donations have come in to begin the effort, we'll start the process of removing the law. I don't know how much that would be; I'm guessing something like $10,000 per law, so it would make sense to go after the ones that do the most economic harm, like laws against victimless crimes. (Which, since they have no victims, should not be crimes -- and the "crime" could be taxed if it was legitimate, providing income to the state instead of the state having to throw dollar after dollar trying to enforce something that people choose to do, like exchange money for sex (what is marriage?) or smoke pot (less harmful than beer or cigarettes).)
It would be nice to be able to grow this into something sustainable, and make a living while doing good. But since I'm struggling as it is now, I'll give my idea out to the masses and if someone else picks it up and runs with it, power to you! Just let me know about it so I can thank you. ;-)
It's snowing out.
Then we can rip off the tablecloth without disturbing the silverware, and slide another one in. Users won't notice because the UI will be identical and it'll run all their old programs.
Yes, it's a pipe dream I've had for several years, and I lack both the time and money to implement something like this. But, just like nanotechnology, it's something we can discuss as a worthy goal.
01234567890123456789 I never thought that you would love me the way that you do.
01234567890123456789 I never thought that you would love me half as much as I do.
01234567890123456789 You say you wanna know everything about me. Well here you go.
01234567890123456789 You say you couldn't live your life without me. I don't know.
01234567890123456789 But if you want it girl, you've got it,
01234567890123456789 it's all right here,
01234567890123456789 in my box set.
01234567890123456789 I never thought that words like product could ever leave my lips,
01234567890123456789 but something happened to me somewhere that made me lose my grip.
01234567890123456789 Maybe it's a lack of inspiration that makes me stoop,
01234567890123456789 or maybe it's a lack of remuneration; I can't recoup.
01234567890123456789 But if you want it folks, you got it;
01234567890123456789 it's all right here in my box set.
01234567890123456789 Disc One
01234567890123456789 it's where we've begun, it's all our greatest hits,
01234567890123456789 and if you are a fan then you know that you've already got 'em.
01234567890123456789 Disc Two
01234567890123456789 it was all brand new, an album's worth of songs,
01234567890123456789 but we had to leave the whole disc blank 'cause
01234567890123456789 some other label bought 'em.
01234567890123456789 Disc Three
01234567890123456789 This is really me in a grade school play;
01234567890123456789 I had about a hundred thousand lines but of course I forgot 'em.
01234567890123456789 I never thought there'd be days like this, there was always someone at my door.
01234567890123456789 I never thought I would ever miss, and the crowd would always holler for more.
01234567890123456789 But now it seems all that people want is what I used to be,
01234567890123456789 and every time I try to do something new,
01234567890123456789 all they want is 1973.
01234567890123456789 I never thought I'd be regretful of all my past success.
01234567890123456789 But some stupid number one hit single has got me in this mess.
01234567890123456789 You can put it on every compilation - that's all right.
01234567890123456789 You can hear it on the oldies radio station every night.
01234567890123456789 And if you want it again, you got it
01234567890123456789 it's right here in my box set.
01234567890123456789 Disc Four
01234567890123456789 Never released before, and you can tell why.
01234567890123456789 it's just some demos I recorded in my basement.
01234567890123456789 Disc Five
01234567890123456789 I was barely alive, I was coughing up a lung,
01234567890123456789 so they had to use a special computer as my replacement.
01234567890123456789 Disc Six
01234567890123456789 A dance remix, so I can catch the latest trend
01234567890123456789 and it'll make you scratch your head and wonder
01234567890123456789 where my taste went.
01234567890123456789 So now my fans are crying sellout,
01234567890123456789 they say that I've lost my touch.
01234567890123456789 They say I should just get the hell out,
01234567890123456789 before I do too much.
01234567890123456789 Hear my songs in an ad for a bathroom cleanser -
01234567890123456789 they say it's greed,
01234567890123456789 And now I'm wondering where my friends are in this time of need.
01234567890123456789 But if you change your mind
Not bugs. Features!
Is it just me, or are "666"s showing up a lot more in the past few years?
(Oh, there's my medication!)
But you can spoof the MAC. Not sure the proper way to do it for actual devices, but under VMware there's a setting in the configuration file for the virtual NIC's MAC. So just run your wireless network from a VM and you can get Joe Schmoe to pay your bills.
Not that I'm advocating this, by the way; I'm making light of a an insecure proposal. I hope they don't use the MAC address!
Smaller, really...
I'll second this. I worked for a company in the mid-90s which was underfunded, and had slow networks, modems and computers. The protocol we created was designed to work well on our setup, so once it got into the field, it flew.
If we had had tons of cash to build a great datacenter, we would not have created as good a product.
I love that. Like the "pained/starving artist" effect.
Actually I have found cheaper prices than Pricewatch for 250 GB 7200 RPM 8 MB cache drives (Western Digital). They're $150-160, after taking the rebate into account (which means you're out an extra $90 for a short period of time).
Cheapest on Pricewatch is $203.
I've recently lost an 80 GB drive, so my Christmas present to myself is a RAID-5 array of 4 x 250 GB drives, so I'll have 750 GB of redundant storage. Should be enough for a couple years, at least. ;-)
And although I thought I'd get a better deal ordering them, I saw the rebates and decided to support my local merchants.
Now, on things like media (CD-R, DVD+/-R, etc.), you can't beat the Internet. Plus they don't have 90 min CD-Rs anywhere locally.
For the last year or so, Pricewatch prices have included shipping.
I actually interpreted it differently: using Open Source to provide a decent infrastructure for movie making. So you could render frames using an "MPAA@home" cluster in as close to real-time as possible. This would allow the creative types to design movies as fast as they could write the scripts and move the "actors" (digitally created, of course).
And people who are good at imitations could record several different "vocal styles" for the computer to chew on, so you could have realistic voices without (I suppose) violating any IP. Or get the actual actors to donate a few hours of their time to reading into a microphone, to help out the cause. Or even pay them, but then the OSS project would require funding.
I completely agree that the creativity is best reserved in the hands of a single person, or small group. But this would not at all prevent people from making edits to what others have published, similar to the people who removed Jar Jar in "The Phantom Edit".
You said the incidence of rape is much less; so it still happens? Did it ever happen to you?
All I know is what I see on TV and movies, these are real questions and I appreciate your valor in discussing your experiences in an on-line forum.
True. But, I'm a US taxpayer, and I'd much rather pay .000000001c for a bullet than $25 for my share of the reward.
And it sends a message to the tattletales: cut it the fuck out.
Saying "The money is already approved" is somewhat repulsive to me. "The money" for mohair subsidies is already approved as well. That doesn't make it any more palatable.
I find my cheese sandwiches very limiting. They take a lot of work to cook just right, and I can't have them and eat them too.
I don't understand. Are you saying margins are better on the PC? Or are you saying that, given equivalent marketing dollars, the PC sells less units?
And are the two circles really similar sets, or somewhat disjoint? I.e., if you release for both, might you sell a couple million on the console and 700,000 on the PC?
(Emphasis added.)
I commute to Boston. Every day I get off at North Station and there's this annoying guy scowling at everyone, ringing a fucking bell trying to get you to give to the Salvation Army or some fucking thing. I'd pay him to stop ringing the bell but I'm out of there in less than a minute.
At the other end (since that's where the bathroom is and I've had occassion to use it in the last week) is a lady with actual jingle bells, like 5 bells on a chain, that's so much nicer. I gave her a couple bucks.
Yes, charities are competing for my money, but give me a smile and a less annoying noise and you'll get my charity dollars.
Yes, I realize that then the RFID tags would be random. But ... then they could start collecting data, and ultimately match us up, just like DNA evidence is "random" until they find a match.
It'll never happen.
You want something like that, go to k5. But there's a lot less readership there so the homepage tends to change a lot less. (Me, I frequent /. and visit k5 once every 6 months or so.)
There's a gem every once in a while though; if you like science ficition and the Singularity, google for "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect" (I've googled for you; I love that story, and it seems he's working on a sequel).
Help, I'm dying of polio!
Won't have much call for that at work, I'd imagine, but it's good to know. I'll look into those tools, especially for the CDs that are failing under Undisker.
I saw a bumper sticker last night while waiting for someone, and it stuck in my head: "For those who fought for freedom, it is a flavor the rest will never understand." I'm one of those behind a keyboard (I'm physically disabled and thus couldn't join up, much as I wanted to), so I'm in your position but completely understand.
"Hoo-yah," as a recent Jake 2.0 episode put it.
Maybe I'm picking nits, but isn't taxation based on the amount of money you earn, rather than the amount of money you control?
And yes, if you earn more than you spend then the amount of money you control tends to grow, year after year. So "the rich" are better off in that respect, as few of them live paycheck-to-paycheck like the rest of us.
I'm somewhat surprised that we got Sadaam before we got Osama. Sadaam had more loyal supporters, but I heard that his wife gave him up hoping to get the $25 million.
Perhaps I'm cynical, but a bullet costs a lot less than $25 million. Taking bets on her surviving the next week?
Of course you have to kill them, they hate you! (Or, they hate blokes from Scotland...)
Your finger goes from solid form to gaseous without stopping at the liquid state in between? Neat!
PS Welcoming the sublimating overlords as well.
Why do you say ISO and bin/cue files are "the most basic"? What does Alcohol or CloneCD create that is more advanced, and what's the difference? Undisker does most everything for me (except if memory serves Office XP with SP2, which I had to use Nero for; see my other post). But if another tool is superior I'd like to know about it. Thanks!
I agree that VMware isn't really designed for games; it was an example which I know a lot about because I use it all day to test new builds. It's a great productivity enhancer; I can test in 3 VMs and although running multiple VMs slows the system down, I still end up being 1.5 to 2 times more productive than doing it locally. Plus I can use the Host OS to do other productivity stuff while it's installing in the VM, like email, writing process documents, etc.