we're talking about Olympic athletes using their prominence within the Olympics to make a quick buck by promoting messages contrary to the message the IOC has ordained.
Why is it that the recently corporatist controlled Olympics are allowed to influence the opinions and actions of the athletes? Olympic athletes participate because they are exceptional. They are not allowed to participate, it is their right! If the IOC isnt capable of upholding the responsibility to serve the planet and provide an NON-PARTISAN Olympics, then their mandate to do so is revoked. How do I, what authority gives me this right? I AM A CITIZEN OF THIS PLANET AND -I- OWN THE OLYMPICS Yes that's right - It is me, and you and every athlete. It is not for the IOC Inc. to decide when we can and cannot use the '5 rings logo'. or anything else - not allowing athletes to post their weblogs (etc) and having 'exclusivity' arrangements w/ a the Mega-Media-Soma-Company is contrary to the ideals of the Olympics.
somehow, because we're talking about corporations battling individuals and not corporations merely battling each other, this has changed? Think carefully and reflect on your own hypocrisy, and you may come to the correct view.
Here is a news flash: Corporations are not people. They have managed to corrupt your American democracy so much, to spoil your culture from what was originally a shinning beacon of freedom to the most thoroughly disgusting collection of law and governance on the planet. Bar none. In 1886, a California Court ruled that a corporation was a 'natural person' (Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad), until someone in the US realizes that CITIZENS have rights, not CORPORATE PARASITES, you will continue to loose your liberty and rights. The IOC Inc, RIAA, MPAA, DMCA, The Republicrates (GoreBush), et al will continue to assure the rights of the corporation are more important than the rights of the citizen. Wake up.
"1-Click downloading -- an industry first which combines 1-Click shopping with the downloading of software over the Internet."
I can't believe this ridiculous claim. I've been downloading software with one click since Mosaic...
How much do you want to bet your Freedom-Loving-Common-Sense-Having-Reasonably-Thin king butt that this isnt the next patent application @ The United States Purchased Tyranny Operation.
Watch out CNet! (they have a purchase SW/Download scheme)
News Flash: Available for a limited time Only at Amazon.com: US Democracy! Yes, the rights of the citizens of the United States are for sale - available only via Amazon.com's Innovative(TM) Amazing(TM) 1Click(TM) Purchasing(TM) Method(TM). OR:
and that you don't care that we wouldn't have half the "cool stuff" we all crave without 'em.
Did everyone live in mudhuts until the idea of IP? Weren't great works of art being created before IP Law? What about the calendar - or how about mathematics? Think about our future - a world were all knowledge and creation is OWNED by someone.
Necessity is the mother of invention - Ie: If I have a scratch I itch it, the itch may be a new material, a program, whatever but it is not OWNED by me.
Standing on the shoulders of Giants - Ie: If I invent a '1/2 Click Patent' isn't it really a product of the work done @ Xerox to create the Mouse? What about electricity, without it nothing would happen when I make my '1/2 click' motion. When coldfusion becomes common on the desktop - will you have to pay a specific license to use this new "XYZCorp Brand:Cold:Fuse EMF(TM)"?
If the calendar had been patented by the gregorians - it would be 'illegal' for me to tell you: Today is September 19, 2000. IP is fundamentally wrong. It is the epitome of selfishness and is the height of the anti-community movement corporatists are pushing.
We will end up in a world where all knowledge and all of existence is patented and owned by corporatists. This is just the beginning.
A so-called Trojan horse program is typically malicious in nature, designed to conceal harmful code inside apparently innocuous programming or data in such a way that a user can get control or unleash a chosen form of damage. However, the Trojan files deployed by the Barenaked Ladies are not designed to harm a person's computer.
...because they cannot be.
One major problem with this point - outside of what the MPAA would like you to believe, MP3, avi,.txt,.doc*, are not PROGRAMS they are DATA and cannot be Trojanized. The exception would be a piece of data designed to exploit a known bug in a particular program, but data cannot illicit un-designed results (bugs are what a programmer designed, not necessarily what he/she intended though). This FUD is a product of recent court cases. I would expect CNet to be a little more clear, there are allot of luser sheeple who read CNet as their tech news source, and if they cant keep it clear were doomed.
*MSWord '.doc' can contain scripts that are interpreted, but fundamentally anything not compiled(binary) is data - including.perl &.java.
is it possible to track this kind of rubbish and remove it, along with users who upload/download it? Keeping it free of this crap will mean that Freenet will be a much cleaner place than the web
Attention FlatPack: The FreeNet is being built because people like you exist. "Lets censor FreeNet" is what you are saying. Fucking Wake up! All censorship for -any- reason is A Bad Thing(tm). Information should never become chattel - it draws a very close line to speech and thought. Ever hear of DeCSS(2600 & the coders)? What about mp3.com? These people are being crucified because corporatists dont agree with giving them the ability to see/discuss/link/read(view) 'IP' they believe they alone have rights to. What they have done is moral, they have not committed a crime. The only thing they have done wrong is jeopardize the 'profit scheme' devised by some Corporatists. When did profit become more 'right and just' than the free will of citizens? Do you want 'thought control'? With advocating the FreeNet you must.
Flatpack: Surely you dont want GovCorp to control all speech and thought? This is where we are headed... unfortunately I think relying on FreeNet to defend ourselves is much to passive a position. Its time to starting thinking about rebuilding a fair and just democracy for citizens - and NOT corporations.
The idea is to build into the economic formula of business, some factors involving the disposal of products.
This has one excellent 'side effect'. Once the bonehead corporatists are forced to pay to dispose of something they will have a desire to reduce the impact their product has on the environment at the end of its useful life. All industries should be forced to pay for disposal of their products - weather it be wrappers from bubble gum to cars. There is no debate that a cost does exist, unfortunately it is the environment and citizens at large paying the bill. Those same citizens have no recourse available to them to force change in the rate of product/garbage/recyclables/packaging offered to them in the marketplace. Maybe then I can buy a toothbrush without 1/4 pound of cardboard & plastic. If you can eliminate some of the eye-candy at the local market - maybe then sheeple will start paying attention to what they are buying (the product) vs the glitzy, shinny, lying packages.
Maybe they will stop exploiting the environment so frivolously simply because they dont pay for the damage they do.
What is all this argument about? Not one conscious person would dare suggest that Censorship is acceptable. Why? Simple: Censorship is subjective and relative. ANY censorship means ANYTHING can be censored. This is beyond obvious to most people who would not bother even discussing it. BUT some sheeple seem to want to continually bring up the idea, for whatever reason they fancy - always forgetting those ideals they obviously didnt comprehend in grade school civics classes.
Tell these sheeple in Holland that it is none of their business if my child looks at hot Asian porn** - and its not my business if they goto a hall once a week and metaphorically consume human flesh while singing and chanting under the direction of a leader who has relations with beings from beyond. That people walk on water. That people can die and be brought back to life by acts of will. Killing your children is OK if told to by a magical burning bush that talks, but not if you were raped. Do I care if he has them convinced that they must act according to his ancient tome from another dimension; else be punished by an evil demon who lives at the center of the earth and will torture the apparition they magically become when they die. Forever.
Its all about paradigm. Im getting pretty fucking feed up, Im starting to think that an IQ test should be a pre-requisite for civil participation.*
*Im just kidding - it would be nice, but terribly contradicting. ** The human body and sex is beautiful in all its forms - and I think THEIR children should be taught that instead of being perverts unable to see people without clothes and feeling guilty, or unable discuss sex. I find that disgusting and immoral to do to children. So who is right?
My portable MP3 player is my CASIO E100. I have 2 x 96MB Sandisk CF Cards. Full. A car/cassette adapter & a set of bud earphones. Not that anyone cares but: Sounds very good, portable & the chicks dig it. Really - its about multi-functional devices.. i would never spend $150 on an mp3 (only) player, my CF cards will work in my digital video camera (when I get the desire to shop for one). My CASIO also playes MPEG4 video... PIC etc etc etc
decisions (it's fate), then there are those who feel that it is actually THEIR decision.
we are in agreement. I understand what/why Amazon may want to alter their prices.. that is not my point. Simply: Raising the price of something AFTER it is purchased is unacceptable; for any reason. Using "a glitch in our price-change-monitoring system" as a reason to not supply a product at the agreed upon price is unethical (at least - likely 'illegal')
Sorry to reply to myself but I want to make something clear about my statement: " deny ourselves" & " People should have every right to enjoy the fruits"
I am not condoning mindless consumerism or mass consumption in culture. A LOT of our present system wastes production on things like packaging, endless buy-buy-buy crap, advertising, planned-obsolescence, Just-In-Time production*, McDonalds kids Toy Plastic crap etc etc etc** - this kind of fluff can be done away with in order to reduce our burden on the planet... but there is a very reasonable medium where the people of the entire planet can live well, enjoy healthcare, enjoy technology etc - and still be responsible to the planet and our culture. Corporatists have introduced a lot of ideas and things (see above **) - for their OWN benefit, not for those of citizens.
* Just-In-Time Production is a method to offload corporate assets from Warehousing and Rail to the public subsidized highways/tractor trailers, at the expense of our safety & tax-coffers (and stress levels of people who work in production facilities)
Why do we feel we have to boycott or deny ourselves something in order to uphold our beliefs? The current technological state of the planet is A Good Thing(TM). It is not a real problem. People should have every right to enjoy the fruits of our culture whether that be a cinema, music, neat kit - whatever. The prosperity of our culture does not have to mutually exclusive to corporatist rape of the world. We simply need to stop the concentration of wealth and power. Corporations should not have more political or judicial clout than an citizen; it is plainly wrong. Corporations should not have the same rights as real people; they are obviously not. Corporations should be tools controlled in the best interest of all. When companies are able to participate in our society as an 'equal' with equal rights we have a problem. They simply do not have the same responsibilities and motivations as citizens. We have taken the last 100 years to figure this out: its plane and clear now.
My solution: (you knew my "I have the 'real' answer" was coming eh)
Revoke every (for profit) corporate charter on the planet. In all cases. Replace it with something else... something that makes them responsible to citizens of the planet, the environment, social rights etc. Build in their charters conditions of responsibility. (not easy I know.. but bear with me). Make it _illegal_ for them to contribute or get involved in politics/government. Enact a kind of Asimov's Robot Laws (replace robot or corporation), pay real money for natural resources and pollution emissions.
THEN: Let them loose in the world, let them sell stock, let them pursue profit. BUT: If they violate this new charter, they are dissolved, assets seized and stocks revoked, all assets are given to a 'world trust' or somesuch. Peroid. Game over. Shareholders and Directors will be finally be financially motivated to do The Right Thing(TM).
Radical? Yes. Flame me if you will, Libertarians: do your worst. But unless the planet bands together, re-writes the fundamental rules, we will never stop MegaCorps from bullying real citizens. They will fully re-write the present system to their advantage, and theirs alone. They will continue to play citizens against one another, governments/regions against one another ("If you raise minimum wage, or enact environmental laws, we will move to XYZ country and you'll be unemployed."). Every country is in a race to the social/environmental/judicial bottom, and the corporatists couldn't be happier.
Why is it Amazon can pull something like this and just walk away from it? Saying "whoops" were sorry... "tee hee our mistake"???
To Someone getting a refund because they were overcharged on error: Good for you. Next time price shop and assure your not being victimized. Consider yourself lucky. To Someone who is being refused their product because the price was wrong in Amazon's systems: Stick to your guns. Get your product at your agreed upon price. IANALTFG (Iamnotalwayerthankfuckinggod) BUT: You have a contract (signed when they sold the product at price X) and now they say they wont supply. Its not your problem.. it's theirs; and I guess they should be more careful next time. What do you care if the price they are selling the product as is a 'loss'... when did corporate profit become a social pillar...? Some sort of corporatists right...? Oh yeah - when US Democracy was bought and sold to the corporate state. Another case of Corporation gets 'its cake and eat it too' and a citizen gets 'the shaft'.
I agree, it would be 'stupid' for them to do it. But given a chance - no doubt they would. Then they would call 'their' ipv6 - M$ InternetBeyond or someshuch. Wouldnt be outside the scope of their actions... can anyone else think of an open standard that is renamed and remarketed as an M$ product?
Absolutely a horrible idea. Do you want judges (any 'one' person) who presides over _MANY_ cases to be able to 'influence' the overall direction of MANY cases? Sounds like a system that will be even MORE abused than it is presently. Judges can become part of the status quo and are as much a part of the 'establishment' as anyone. That system is terribly easy to corrupt. What is necessary INSTEAD is a system where a JURY of competent Tech people preside over these cases. They are transient (cannot change the general nature or direction of Case Law) and are MUCH less corruptible (can be sequestered). They preside on the facts at hand. Once. Have little chance of being a homogenous group of any type, and can be decided in the usual Jury Selection System.
Lets NOT encourage further entrenchment of this un-holy domination of Western Civilization that Lawyers have over everything. Let them organize the courts, nothing more. But lets make CITIZENS make the rulings. What a horrible idea.
Would you Yankees stand up for yourselves? Your being overrun by corporatists and lawyers(politicians), and their using your military to overrun the rest of us. Do yourselves a favour:
"add any "embrace and extend" incomapatabilites, no one will be able to duplicate those incompatibilities by looking at the source code"
Thats one very good point, But: If MS begins the embrace, extend tactic - if the rest of the 'net 'duplicate that operation we fall into a terrible pit. What happens is then MS controls the protocol and everyone else is left playing catch-up, thats where the extinguish bit comes into play. By doing this they marginalize everyone else by arbitrarily introducing incompatibilities. AVOID THIS TRAP!
"Many Iowa residents have been left behind by high-speed Internet providers simply because of where they live," said Pederson. "Without high-speed Internet access, we can't expect many of those communities to survive."
Without unfettered access to Brittany Spears Topless pr0n pop-up ads and the latest 3L337 VV4R3z all communities in Iowa will disband. I love it when rednecks get dramatic. Lets not take this internet thing TOO seriously now...
From the Article:On December 10, 1993 a somewhat successful but modest computer game developer by the name of id Software released a game called Doom. This game defined 3D action games and became an industry all its own.
It was actually Wolfenstein 3D that gave birth to FPS. How quickly we forget.
Recent DMCA/RIAA/UCTA/MPAA revelations got you down? Think democracy still works in America? or has it been BOUGHT by corporatist pigs. WAKE UP AMERICA! Its not going to end no matter how much you bitch on/. TELL YOUR FRIENDS! AND:
"someone who owns and creates something has every right to sell it under any terms they want. If those terms suck, no one will buy it. Just because people want something does not mean they deserve to have it- especially not on terms THEY choose."
Terms? What Terms? ShrinkWrap Licenses, and Copyright licenses are not 'Terms' they are more like decrees from a pseudo authority. My being a citizen (NOT A FUCKING CONSUMER) of Canada who decides I will purchase a CD from the RIAA have no ability to agree on 'Terms'. The RIAA members have identical licenses. They maintain a MONOPOLY (arguably OLIGOPOLY (semantics really because of) their COLLUSION that A) Maintains a ONE choice rule for CD's purchase. ie: You want Music? You buy our CDs and THESE ARE THE TERMS. Period. B) Organize and Maintain an UNBELIEVEBLY HIGH BARRIER TO ENTRY to anyone who would choose to offer any other Terms. Ie: Your independent record company has great music and a more OpenStyle license? Who cares, you'll be blocked from tour sponsorship (exclusivity deals) you'll be blocked from Radio Stations (wrangling and shifty "PR" arrangements where Radio Stations are PAID to play music (not the other way around dammit - remember that). You'll be relegated to the margins, the backwaters.
There is no compitition within the RIAA
You think that business model sucks? Fine- drive them out of business with your own.
Are you kidding? The American Government is so absolutely undemocratic and polluted with SPAC/Lobbyist money from the likes of the RIAA (et al) that the IP industry has BOUGHT A FUCKING SYSTEM WHERE THEIR PERPETUAL -UNNECESSARY- EXISTANCE IS PROTECTED BY LAW. DMCA? DISNEY's LIFE+100YEARS? MP3.com ruling? Napster ruling? The net enables music distributors to be thrown out of the system. Their original 'business purpose' was physical reproduction and promotion - The Internet makes that absolutely unnecessary. To argue about this is pointless. Why would anyone maintain that we should keep them in business? To exploit and gouge? To strangle culture in exchange for Billion dollar profits?
I have stopped buying CDs. I download _ALL_ my music from Napster et al. I will not stop until the IP industry is has been fundamentally been altered or ENDS . I recommend to my friends (and you) that they(you) do the same. Refuse to support an unnecessary profit engine. What is more moral? Artifical monopoly and exploitation? Or enjoying the cultural fruit of the modern world? Start thinking about what it means to be a citizen of this planet, and that we have absolute rights. Start thinking about why we* choose to legislate a system where corporations are entitled to exploit us all.
*NOTE* Not Me? Not You(probably)? Who then? Maybe the same people who are making these rules are the ones who stand to benefit the most? Conflict of interest? Taxation(legislation) without representation? Why don't our democracies work anymore? Were _YOU_ given an opportunity to 'vote' on the DMCA? NO? Then who's interests does it serve?
Palm/Pocket PC - Capabilities & Reality.
Rebuttal from a CasioE100 Owner:
a) Don't compare processors... the Palm does everything quickly and efficiently with 16mhz. The Pocket PCs are 133mhz+....never intended to be an MP3 player.
I have run 'tests' with a coworker who runs a PalmIII/V, we did blanket searches on a 'word' contained in our PIM databases. I retrieved my data faster on every attempt, regardless of 'type'. My device has 16 megs (8RAM/8ROM) with about 5-6MB of PIM data. Admittedly NOT scientific, but it was enough to convince the both of us.
b) Palm Multi-platform friendly. The Pocket PC is all about Windows...iPaq can run linux, and Slashdot runs stories about it regularly).
I have CF Ethernet. To send files back/forth I simply use FTP/SMTP. The Pocket PC does not sync with any Non-Windows PC PIM Software (that I am aware of). I can move files to the CasioE100 without any trouble from _ANY_ TCP/IP capable box.
c) The Pocket PC has painfully little application support. VNC? SSH? Telnet?....generally more expensive than Palm.
There is plenty of software available. More than I can even try.
d) No wireless support yet for Pocket PC...To me at least, there's no point getting a media rich Palm device if I can't use it to access the net.
CF Modem that I use togetherwith my phone
e) Cost, Cost, Cost. You can get Palms for as little as $149... NEW. Lower costs mean more accessibility to the geeks that write the code.:)
You might have me on this one.
CasioE100: $600 CF Modem: $69 (MS Rebate deal) CF Ethernet: $180 2 x 96MB CFRAM: $300 ea. Nokia Cell Phone: $200 (or so) Having the most technically capable, multimedia, wireless, portable Palm/Pocket (whatever) PC/PIM: Priceless.
NOTE: I bought the device based on what it _CAN_ do by leveraging the OUTSTANDING hardware in a Palm/Pocket PC (at its time 10mos.) ago. I am not a great lover of M$, but their still is no comparing this device to _ANY_ Palm product. Please be realistic and leave the Anti-M$ zealotry out of your analysis.
The idea is that the ADK belongs to the secret police, or the user's employer, or some organization, and that organization can intercept the encrypted message and read it.
Ummmmmm am i missing something here? What good is PGP encryption if someone other than the certificate owner is _also_ given the key.
are increasingly accustomed to tailoring their news consumption: they want information of particular interest to them, at the times they choose to receive it.
What will surely rise as a problem in the near future is a society disconnected from a common 'world state' (not state as in country, but state as in tense). When people only have interest in seeking out and reading news that is of interest to them we may have a problem. The evening news (for all its obvious ills) provided a common public discourse. When people begin to consume their news information as entertainment, we loose the ability to maintain an idea of a general present state (of society/world). For instance, Slashdotters, myself included, are rabid over the MPAA/DMCA/RIAA/DeCSS/Napster/2600 mess. When we only focus on the problems WE are interested in we loose touch with everything else. Have you ever tried to explain this situation to 'non-slashdot-types'? Painful isn't it. This situation has broad reaching implications and people in the general US population have ZERO idea what the problem is, maybe because they find other things 'more interesting'.
The mainstream media plays to the middle, this topic will NEVER bubble to the top. Now imagine other groups coalescing around whatever topic is of interest to them, by doing so it marginalizes our ability act in force. This will separate people into many disperse groups, unable to communicate. People no longer are aware of the general world around them. We have got to try and maintain a balance between specific news topics/sources (tech - slashdot) by balancing it with more general topics/sources. (bbc/cbc/cnn - environnent/social justice/politics). When a story appears on one of these sources* remember that their is another equally rabid group trying desperately to get US to hear them.
* except the obvious status-quo corporatist propaganda stories foisted by the corporate media(which should be obviously ignored).
Scared of the recent comments by Sony's VP? Yeah, me too. Corporations got you down? Yeah, me too. Why don't you:
Slashdot Mirror
we're talking about Olympic athletes using their prominence within the Olympics to make a quick buck by promoting messages contrary to the message the IOC has ordained.
Why is it that the recently corporatist controlled Olympics are allowed to influence the opinions and actions of the athletes? Olympic athletes participate because they are exceptional. They are not allowed to participate, it is their right! If the IOC isnt capable of upholding the responsibility to serve the planet and provide an NON-PARTISAN Olympics, then their mandate to do so is revoked. How do I, what authority gives me this right? I AM A CITIZEN OF THIS PLANET AND -I- OWN THE OLYMPICS Yes that's right - It is me, and you and every athlete. It is not for the IOC Inc. to decide when we can and cannot use the '5 rings logo'. or anything else - not allowing athletes to post their weblogs (etc) and having 'exclusivity' arrangements w/ a the Mega-Media-Soma-Company is contrary to the ideals of the Olympics.
somehow, because we're talking about corporations battling individuals and not corporations merely battling each other, this has changed? Think carefully and reflect on your own hypocrisy, and you may come to the correct view.
Here is a news flash: Corporations are not people. They have managed to corrupt your American democracy so much, to spoil your culture from what was originally a shinning beacon of freedom to the most thoroughly disgusting collection of law and governance on the planet. Bar none. In 1886, a California Court ruled that a corporation was a 'natural person' (Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad), until someone in the US realizes that CITIZENS have rights, not CORPORATE PARASITES, you will continue to loose your liberty and rights. The IOC Inc, RIAA, MPAA, DMCA, The Republicrates (GoreBush), et al will continue to assure the rights of the corporation are more important than the rights of the citizen. Wake up.
Release your material in MP3 and other open formats.
I think our friends @ Fraunhofer might have something to say about just how FREE (gratis & libre) our MP3s are. Lets remember our friends at Ogg Vorbis and what is really free.
**"and other" implies that MP3 *is* open. So spare yourself the poor argument that I misunderstood them.
"1-Click downloading -- an industry first which combines 1-Click shopping with the downloading of software over the Internet."
n king butt that this isnt the next patent application @ The United States Purchased Tyranny Operation.
I can't believe this ridiculous claim. I've been downloading software with one click since Mosaic...
How much do you want to bet your Freedom-Loving-Common-Sense-Having-Reasonably-Thi
Watch out CNet! (they have a purchase SW/Download scheme)
News Flash: Available for a limited time Only at Amazon.com: US Democracy! Yes, the rights of the citizens of the United States are for sale - available only via Amazon.com's Innovative(TM) Amazing(TM) 1Click(TM) Purchasing(TM) Method(TM). OR:
and that you don't care that we wouldn't have half the "cool stuff" we all crave without 'em.
:Cold:Fuse EMF(TM)"?
Did everyone live in mudhuts until the idea of IP? Weren't great works of art being created before IP Law? What about the calendar - or how about mathematics? Think about our future - a world were all knowledge and creation is OWNED by someone.
Necessity is the mother of invention - Ie: If I have a scratch I itch it, the itch may be a new material, a program, whatever but it is not OWNED by me.
Standing on the shoulders of Giants - Ie: If I invent a '1/2 Click Patent' isn't it really a product of the work done @ Xerox to create the Mouse? What about electricity, without it nothing would happen when I make my '1/2 click' motion. When coldfusion becomes common on the desktop - will you have to pay a specific license to use this new "XYZCorp Brand
If the calendar had been patented by the gregorians - it would be 'illegal' for me to tell you: Today is September 19, 2000.
IP is fundamentally wrong. It is the epitome of selfishness and is the height of the anti-community movement corporatists are pushing.
We will end up in a world where all knowledge and all of existence is patented and owned by corporatists. This is just the beginning.
A so-called Trojan horse program is typically malicious in nature, designed to conceal harmful code inside apparently innocuous programming or data in such a way that a user can get control or unleash a chosen form of damage. However, the Trojan files deployed by the Barenaked Ladies are not designed to harm a person's computer.
.txt, .doc*, are not PROGRAMS they are DATA and cannot be Trojanized. The exception would be a piece of data designed to exploit a known bug in a particular program, but data cannot illicit un-designed results (bugs are what a programmer designed, not necessarily what he/she intended though). This FUD is a product of recent court cases. I would expect CNet to be a little more clear, there are allot of luser sheeple who read CNet as their tech news source, and if they cant keep it clear were doomed.
.perl & .java.
...because they cannot be.
One major problem with this point - outside of what the MPAA would like you to believe, MP3, avi,
*MSWord '.doc' can contain scripts that are interpreted, but fundamentally anything not compiled(binary) is data - including
is it possible to track this kind of rubbish and remove it, along with users who upload/download it? Keeping it free of this crap will mean that Freenet will be a much cleaner place than the web
Attention FlatPack: The FreeNet is being built because people like you exist. "Lets censor FreeNet" is what you are saying. Fucking Wake up! All censorship for -any- reason is A Bad Thing(tm). Information should never become chattel - it draws a very close line to speech and thought. Ever hear of DeCSS(2600 & the coders)? What about mp3.com? These people are being crucified because corporatists dont agree with giving them the ability to see/discuss/link/read(view) 'IP' they believe they alone have rights to. What they have done is moral, they have not committed a crime. The only thing they have done wrong is jeopardize the 'profit scheme' devised by some Corporatists. When did profit become more 'right and just' than the free will of citizens? Do you want 'thought control'? With advocating the FreeNet you must.
Flatpack: Surely you dont want GovCorp to control all speech and thought? This is where we are headed... unfortunately I think relying on FreeNet to defend ourselves is much to passive a position. Its time to starting thinking about rebuilding a fair and just democracy for citizens - and NOT corporations.
The idea is to build into the economic formula of business, some factors involving the disposal of products.
This has one excellent 'side effect'. Once the bonehead corporatists are forced to pay to dispose of something they will have a desire to reduce the impact their product has on the environment at the end of its useful life. All industries should be forced to pay for disposal of their products - weather it be wrappers from bubble gum to cars. There is no debate that a cost does exist, unfortunately it is the environment and citizens at large paying the bill. Those same citizens have no recourse available to them to force change in the rate of product/garbage/recyclables/packaging offered to them in the marketplace. Maybe then I can buy a toothbrush without 1/4 pound of cardboard & plastic. If you can eliminate some of the eye-candy at the local market - maybe then sheeple will start paying attention to what they are buying (the product) vs the glitzy, shinny, lying packages.
Maybe they will stop exploiting the environment so frivolously simply because they dont pay for the damage they do.
TEst
What is all this argument about? Not one conscious person would dare suggest that Censorship is acceptable. Why? Simple: Censorship is subjective and relative. ANY censorship means ANYTHING can be censored. This is beyond obvious to most people who would not bother even discussing it. BUT some sheeple seem to want to continually bring up the idea, for whatever reason they fancy - always forgetting those ideals they obviously didnt comprehend in grade school civics classes.
Tell these sheeple in Holland that it is none of their business if my child looks at hot Asian porn** - and its not my business if they goto a hall once a week and metaphorically consume human flesh while singing and chanting under the direction of a leader who has relations with beings from beyond. That people walk on water. That people can die and be brought back to life by acts of will. Killing your children is OK if told to by a magical burning bush that talks, but not if you were raped. Do I care if he has them convinced that they must act according to his ancient tome from another dimension; else be punished by an evil demon who lives at the center of the earth and will torture the apparition they magically become when they die. Forever.
Its all about paradigm. Im getting pretty fucking feed up, Im starting to think that an IQ test should be a pre-requisite for civil participation.*
*Im just kidding - it would be nice, but terribly contradicting.
** The human body and sex is beautiful in all its forms - and I think THEIR children should be taught that instead of being perverts unable to see people without clothes and feeling guilty, or unable discuss sex. I find that disgusting and immoral to do to children. So who is right?
My portable MP3 player is my CASIO E100. I have 2 x 96MB Sandisk CF Cards. Full. A car/cassette adapter & a set of bud earphones. Not that anyone cares but: Sounds very good, portable & the chicks dig it. Really - its about multi-functional devices.. i would never spend $150 on an mp3 (only) player, my CF cards will work in my digital video camera (when I get the desire to shop for one). My CASIO also playes MPEG4 video... PIC etc etc etc
This is what is meant when people talk about passing consumer privacy laws.
Consumer? or Citizen Consumers only have the 'rights given to them by corporatists.. remember that next time you call yourself a 'consumer'!
decisions (it's fate), then there are those who feel that it is actually THEIR decision.
we are in agreement. I understand what/why Amazon may want to alter their prices.. that is not my point. Simply: Raising the price of something AFTER it is purchased is unacceptable; for any reason. Using "a glitch in our price-change-monitoring system" as a reason to not supply a product at the agreed upon price is unethical (at least - likely 'illegal')
Sorry to reply to myself but I want to make something clear about my statement: " deny ourselves" & " People should have every right to enjoy the fruits"
I am not condoning mindless consumerism or mass consumption in culture. A LOT of our present system wastes production on things like packaging, endless buy-buy-buy crap, advertising, planned-obsolescence, Just-In-Time production*, McDonalds kids Toy Plastic crap etc etc etc** - this kind of fluff can be done away with in order to reduce our burden on the planet... but there is a very reasonable medium where the people of the entire planet can live well, enjoy healthcare, enjoy technology etc - and still be responsible to the planet and our culture. Corporatists have introduced a lot of ideas and things (see above **) - for their OWN benefit, not for those of citizens.
* Just-In-Time Production is a method to offload corporate assets from Warehousing and Rail to the public subsidized highways/tractor trailers, at the expense of our safety & tax-coffers (and stress levels of people who work in production facilities)
Why do we feel we have to boycott or deny ourselves something in order to uphold our beliefs? The current technological state of the planet is A Good Thing(TM). It is not a real problem. People should have every right to enjoy the fruits of our culture whether that be a cinema, music, neat kit - whatever. The prosperity of our culture does not have to mutually exclusive to corporatist rape of the world. We simply need to stop the concentration of wealth and power. Corporations should not have more political or judicial clout than an citizen; it is plainly wrong. Corporations should not have the same rights as real people; they are obviously not. Corporations should be tools controlled in the best interest of all. When companies are able to participate in our society as an 'equal' with equal rights we have a problem. They simply do not have the same responsibilities and motivations as citizens. We have taken the last 100 years to figure this out: its plane and clear now.
My solution: (you knew my "I have the 'real' answer" was coming eh)
Revoke every (for profit) corporate charter on the planet. In all cases. Replace it with something else... something that makes them responsible to citizens of the planet, the environment, social rights etc. Build in their charters conditions of responsibility. (not easy I know.. but bear with me). Make it _illegal_ for them to contribute or get involved in politics/government. Enact a kind of Asimov's Robot Laws (replace robot or corporation), pay real money for natural resources and pollution emissions.
THEN: Let them loose in the world, let them sell stock, let them pursue profit. BUT: If they violate this new charter, they are dissolved, assets seized and stocks revoked, all assets are given to a 'world trust' or somesuch. Peroid. Game over. Shareholders and Directors will be finally be financially motivated to do The Right Thing(TM).
Radical? Yes. Flame me if you will, Libertarians: do your worst. But unless the planet bands together, re-writes the fundamental rules, we will never stop MegaCorps from bullying real citizens . They will fully re-write the present system to their advantage, and theirs alone. They will continue to play citizens against one another, governments/regions against one another ("If you raise minimum wage, or enact environmental laws, we will move to XYZ country and you'll be unemployed."). Every country is in a race to the social/environmental/judicial bottom, and the corporatists couldn't be happier.
DO US ALL A FAVOUR AMERICA:
Why is it Amazon can pull something like this and just walk away from it? Saying "whoops" were sorry... "tee hee our mistake"???
To Someone getting a refund because they were overcharged on error: Good for you. Next time price shop and assure your not being victimized. Consider yourself lucky.
To Someone who is being refused their product because the price was wrong in Amazon's systems: Stick to your guns. Get your product at your agreed upon price. IANALTFG (Iamnotalwayerthankfuckinggod) BUT: You have a contract (signed when they sold the product at price X) and now they say they wont supply. Its not your problem.. it's theirs; and I guess they should be more careful next time. What do you care if the price they are selling the product as is a 'loss'... when did corporate profit become a social pillar...? Some sort of corporatists right...?
Oh yeah - when US Democracy was bought and sold to the corporate state.
Another case of Corporation gets 'its cake and eat it too' and a citizen gets 'the shaft'.
I agree, it would be 'stupid' for them to do it. But given a chance - no doubt they would. Then they would call 'their' ipv6 - M$ InternetBeyond or someshuch. Wouldnt be outside the scope of their actions... can anyone else think of an open standard that is renamed and remarketed as an M$ product?
Absolutely a horrible idea. Do you want judges (any 'one' person) who presides over _MANY_ cases to be able to 'influence' the overall direction of MANY cases? Sounds like a system that will be even MORE abused than it is presently. Judges can become part of the status quo and are as much a part of the 'establishment' as anyone. That system is terribly easy to corrupt. What is necessary INSTEAD is a system where a JURY of competent Tech people preside over these cases. They are transient (cannot change the general nature or direction of Case Law) and are MUCH less corruptible (can be sequestered). They preside on the facts at hand. Once. Have little chance of being a homogenous group of any type, and can be decided in the usual Jury Selection System.
Lets NOT encourage further entrenchment of this un-holy domination of Western Civilization that Lawyers have over everything. Let them organize the courts, nothing more. But lets make CITIZENS make the rulings. What a horrible idea.
Would you Yankees stand up for yourselves? Your being overrun by corporatists and lawyers(politicians), and their using your military to overrun the rest of us. Do yourselves a favour:
"add any "embrace and extend" incomapatabilites, no one will be able to duplicate those incompatibilities by looking at the source code"
Thats one very good point, But:
If MS begins the embrace, extend tactic - if the rest of the 'net 'duplicate that operation we fall into a terrible pit. What happens is then MS controls the protocol and everyone else is left playing catch-up, thats where the extinguish bit comes into play. By doing this they marginalize everyone else by arbitrarily introducing incompatibilities. AVOID THIS TRAP!
From the article: Remember how shocked you were at the end of the Sixth Sense when it turned out Bruce Willis was a robot?
Either I'm dense (maybe) or the author is. Obviously he didnt remember Sixth Sense. Here is a refresher:
Bruce Willis was a ghost.
Decker was a robot
"Many Iowa residents have been left behind by high-speed Internet providers simply because of where they live," said Pederson. "Without high-speed Internet access, we can't expect many of those communities to survive."
Without unfettered access to Brittany Spears Topless pr0n pop-up ads and the latest 3L337 VV4R3z all communities in Iowa will disband.
I love it when rednecks get dramatic. Lets not take this internet thing TOO seriously now...
From the Article:On December 10, 1993 a somewhat successful but modest computer game developer by the name of id Software released a game called Doom. This game defined 3D action games and became an industry all its own.
/. TELL YOUR FRIENDS! AND:
It was actually Wolfenstein 3D that gave birth to FPS. How quickly we forget.
Recent DMCA/RIAA/UCTA/MPAA revelations got you down? Think democracy still works in America? or has it been BOUGHT by corporatist pigs. WAKE UP AMERICA! Its not going to end no matter how much you bitch on
"someone who owns and creates something has every right to sell it under any terms they want. If those terms suck, no one will buy it. Just because people want something does not mean they deserve to have it- especially not on terms THEY choose."
Terms? What Terms? ShrinkWrap Licenses, and Copyright licenses are not 'Terms' they are more like decrees from a pseudo authority. My being a citizen (NOT A FUCKING CONSUMER ) of Canada who decides I will purchase a CD from the RIAA have no ability to agree on 'Terms'. The RIAA members have identical licenses. They maintain a MONOPOLY (arguably OLIGOPOLY (semantics really because of) their COLLUSION that A) Maintains a ONE choice rule for CD's purchase. ie: You want Music? You buy our CDs and THESE ARE THE TERMS. Period. B) Organize and Maintain an UNBELIEVEBLY HIGH BARRIER TO ENTRY to anyone who would choose to offer any other Terms. Ie: Your independent record company has great music and a more OpenStyle license? Who cares, you'll be blocked from tour sponsorship (exclusivity deals) you'll be blocked from Radio Stations (wrangling and shifty "PR" arrangements where Radio Stations are PAID to play music (not the other way around dammit - remember that). You'll be relegated to the margins, the backwaters.
There is no compitition within the RIAA
You think that business model sucks? Fine- drive them out of business with your own.
Are you kidding? The American Government is so absolutely undemocratic and polluted with SPAC/Lobbyist money from the likes of the RIAA (et al) that the IP industry has BOUGHT A FUCKING SYSTEM WHERE THEIR PERPETUAL -UNNECESSARY- EXISTANCE IS PROTECTED BY LAW. DMCA? DISNEY's LIFE+100YEARS? MP3.com ruling? Napster ruling? The net enables music distributors to be thrown out of the system. Their original 'business purpose' was physical reproduction and promotion - The Internet makes that absolutely unnecessary. To argue about this is pointless. Why would anyone maintain that we should keep them in business? To exploit and gouge? To strangle culture in exchange for Billion dollar profits?
I have stopped buying CDs. I download _ALL_ my music from Napster et al. I will not stop until the IP industry is has been fundamentally been altered or ENDS . I recommend to my friends (and you) that they(you) do the same. Refuse to support an unnecessary profit engine. What is more moral? Artifical monopoly and exploitation? Or enjoying the cultural fruit of the modern world? Start thinking about what it means to be a citizen of this planet, and that we have absolute rights. Start thinking about why we* choose to legislate a system where corporations are entitled to exploit us all.
*NOTE* Not Me? Not You(probably)? Who then? Maybe the same people who are making these rules are the ones who stand to benefit the most? Conflict of interest? Taxation(legislation) without representation? Why don't our democracies work anymore? Were _YOU_ given an opportunity to 'vote' on the DMCA? NO? Then who's interests does it serve?
Palm/Pocket PC - Capabilities & Reality. Rebuttal from a CasioE100 Owner:
... NEW. Lower costs mean more accessibility to the geeks that write the code. :)
a) Don't compare processors... the Palm does everything quickly and efficiently with 16mhz. The Pocket PCs are 133mhz+....never intended to be an MP3 player.
I have run 'tests' with a coworker who runs a PalmIII/V, we did blanket searches on a 'word' contained in our PIM databases. I retrieved my data faster on every attempt, regardless of 'type'. My device has 16 megs (8RAM/8ROM) with about 5-6MB of PIM data. Admittedly NOT scientific, but it was enough to convince the both of us.
b) Palm Multi-platform friendly. The Pocket PC is all about Windows...iPaq can run linux, and Slashdot runs stories about it regularly).
I have CF Ethernet. To send files back/forth I simply use FTP/SMTP. The Pocket PC does not sync with any Non-Windows PC PIM Software (that I am aware of). I can move files to the CasioE100 without any trouble from _ANY_ TCP/IP capable box.
c) The Pocket PC has painfully little application support. VNC? SSH? Telnet?....generally more expensive than Palm.
VNC
Telnet
SSH
There is plenty of software available. More than I can even try.
d) No wireless support yet for Pocket PC...To me at least, there's no point getting a media rich Palm device if I can't use it to access the net.
CF Modem that I use togetherwith my phone
e) Cost, Cost, Cost. You can get Palms for as little as $149
You might have me on this one.
CasioE100: $600
CF Modem: $69 (MS Rebate deal)
CF Ethernet: $180
2 x 96MB CFRAM: $300 ea.
Nokia Cell Phone: $200 (or so)
Having the most technically capable, multimedia, wireless, portable Palm/Pocket (whatever) PC/PIM: Priceless.
NOTE: I bought the device based on what it _CAN_ do by leveraging the OUTSTANDING hardware in a Palm/Pocket PC (at its time 10mos.) ago. I am not a great lover of M$, but their still is no comparing this device to _ANY_ Palm product. Please be realistic and leave the Anti-M$ zealotry out of your analysis.
The idea is that the ADK belongs to the secret police, or the user's employer, or some organization, and that organization can intercept the encrypted message and read it.
Ummmmmm am i missing something here? What good is PGP encryption if someone other than the certificate owner is _also_ given the key.
are increasingly accustomed to tailoring their news consumption: they want information of particular interest to them, at the times they choose to receive it.
A very interesting bit of truth. Neil Postman writes very shocking and telling books on this subject. Important is: Amusing Ourselves to Death and How to Watch TV News which deal with these ideas.
What will surely rise as a problem in the near future is a society disconnected from a common 'world state' (not state as in country, but state as in tense). When people only have interest in seeking out and reading news that is of interest to them we may have a problem. The evening news (for all its obvious ills) provided a common public discourse. When people begin to consume their news information as entertainment, we loose the ability to maintain an idea of a general present state (of society/world). For instance, Slashdotters, myself included, are rabid over the MPAA/DMCA/RIAA/DeCSS/Napster/2600 mess. When we only focus on the problems WE are interested in we loose touch with everything else. Have you ever tried to explain this situation to 'non-slashdot-types'? Painful isn't it. This situation has broad reaching implications and people in the general US population have ZERO idea what the problem is, maybe because they find other things 'more interesting'.
The mainstream media plays to the middle, this topic will NEVER bubble to the top. Now imagine other groups coalescing around whatever topic is of interest to them, by doing so it marginalizes our ability act in force. This will separate people into many disperse groups, unable to communicate. People no longer are aware of the general world around them. We have got to try and maintain a balance between specific news topics/sources (tech - slashdot) by balancing it with more general topics/sources. (bbc/cbc/cnn - environnent/social justice/politics). When a story appears on one of these sources* remember that their is another equally rabid group trying desperately to get US to hear them.
* except the obvious status-quo corporatist propaganda stories foisted by the corporate media(which should be obviously ignored).
Scared of the recent comments by Sony's VP? Yeah, me too. Corporations got you down? Yeah, me too. Why don't you: