> BTW, gold is not inflation free. What do you
> think comes out of gold mines, genius?
And gold has been suffering from a very bad bout
of inflation for some time now. Ask anybody
whose been stupid enough to be a gold bug for
last 20 years or so. Gold is now worth less
than half of what it was in 1980 *in unadjusted
dollars*. Adjusted for dollar inflation, gold is worth something like a fourth of what it was then.
Somebody's been handing out crack pipes to the
moderators again. To the clueless guy who
moderated this as "Interesting", the DOS referred
to in the original article is *not* MS-DOS,
twit. Moderate this up as "Funny", maybe, but
*not* "Interesting".
OS/380? I've worked with IBM mainframes for
years and I never heard of OS/380. You're right
about the derivation of OS/360, though. They
were kinda stuck after OS/390, I guess, since
OS/400 was already taken...
"All right, Mr. Jones. Put the Nikon down
and back away *slowly*..."
Chris Mattern
Re:eFront sends out Cease and Desist letters....
on
eFront From Inside
·
· Score: 1
> The rest of the letter is just crap,
> especially: "In addition, we are requesting
> that you shut down the entire forum for Efront,
> due to the criminal investigation and the
> illegal actions that have been conducted with
> the reading and gathering of such materials."
>
> What is that last clause supposed to mean?
It means, "You're saying mean things and if
you don't stop we're gonna tell our mommy!"
> US could have simply stopped there and made
> peace - after all, Japan had already lost all
> conquered land. They were no threat anymore.
> But of course the US wanted vengeance.
No, the US wanted to avoid a repeat of 1918.
If there was one thing WWI taught the Allies,
it was that you had to *finish* the job, or
it would be to do all over again the next
generation.
> Race shouldn't relly enter into the position at
> all. If the Constitution says anything about
> race, it's because at the time it was written,
> blacks only counted as 3/8 of a person.
Not quite; *slaves* counted as *3/5* of a person,
and are referred to only as "other Persons" (i.e.,
not free, indentured or Indians not taxed).
All slaves were black, but not all blacks were
slaves; the ones that weren't counted as a full
person. The only actual mention of a race in the
original Constitution was in fact Indians, who
didn't get to count at all.
No, actually it means "age" or "period".
"Sen" means "war" (and "senshi" means
"warrior" or "soldier") and "goku" means
"country" or "land". I don't think this is
where Lucas got "Jedi" from.
Escaflowne. Fushigi Yuugi is neat, but the
characters can be mind-bendingly *dumb*
(especially Yuuki Miaka) that you want to beat
your head against a wall. Besides, with
Escaflowne you only need to buy one season, 26
episodes.
I'm currently watching Nadia and getting the
word "sugoi!" (wow!/amazing!/incredible!)
drilled into my head, since it seems that
somebody says it every five minutes...
> Actually, I'm sure the labor unions would be
> all for making barn raisings illegal. Can't
> have people giving away their labor and taking
> job opportunities away from union workers. If
> unions are able to grab a foothold in the
> software industry, are they going to have a
> similar perception of free software?
Naw, you don't ban barn-raising. You just
institute a building code for barns. To ensure
people's *safety*, you understand. It's really
all to protect the children. Sound familiar?
"Well, I'm sorry, Mr. King, but your barn
doesn't meet code. I'm going to have to insist
you tear it down or the county'll do it for you
and bill you for the demolition. Now, if you
like, I can give the numbers of some reliable
contractors who have a good understanding of
building things to code..."
The fact is that market forces serve the market, not consumers. Market forces drove down the price VHS VCRs and made them as common as dirt. Market forces didn't force Sony to license the Beta standard to other manufacturers and Beta disappeared. The consumers
did not win.
Yes, they did. The consumers wanted a cheap, universal format. The consumers wanted an easy-to-use control panel. The consumers wanted to be able to time shift. The consumers wanted to be able to record an entire TV movie on one tape. The consumers got everything they wanted, in spite of the fact that a powerful Hollywood industry did not want them to have those things. The consumers did not really give a crap about Beta's picture quality; VHS was Good Enough. Beta failed because VHS gave the consumers what they wanted and Beta didn't.
> "Do you have any illegal weapons?"
> "Do you have any illegal drugs?"
> Duh.
> It's probably to allow for an additional charge
> (lying to an immigration officer or some such
> crap) during a possible prosecution.
IANALO (I Am Not A Law Officer), but I'll bet
they ask those questions not for your answer
(which will of course be "No") but to gauge
your reaction to being asked it (how good a poker
player are you...?).
LoTR which "just" revitilized modern fantasy?
(And even then, you can argue that Baum and
Lewis were also critical to that).
Actually, William Morris (most famous for his
founding of the Arts and Crafts movement and,
oddly, his Socialism) probably invented epic
high fantasy as we know it today, with The
Well at the World's End.
> Anyone notice that Myst didn't have any games
> listed that were influenced by it?
Actually, they did list games that were influenced
by it; they just did it in the main text instead
of in a big sidebar. However, aside from Riven,
I'd never heard of any of the games they listed...
>> I would have said 7th guest and 11th hour
>> where influenced by myth.
I assume you mean *Myst*, since Myth and
7th Guest aren't very similar. But in either
case it is not true, since 7th Guest came out
years before either game.
>> I can't imagine what kind of a market it is
>> where businesses can actually say NO to
>> potential customers who want to give them cash
>> in hand...
Never tried to rent a car, have you? You CANNOT
rent a car for cash...
>> Having gained immortality, they became bored
>> and began improving other species. (Starcraft
>> really ripped this whole thing off...)
Scarcely the only ones. Not even the only ones
in gaming, vide _Traveller_. Everybody rips
ideas off; the question is what they do with
them. Traveller and Starcraft did good.
> After all, no-one is complaining that having
> open mailboxes outside every post office is a
> security problem
Yes, they are. You can no longer post packages
via public mailbox because of security reasons.
Remember the IMF protests in Washington back in
April? I work half a dozen blocks from the IMF;
I remember when the security guys came and removed
all our street mailboxes to prepare for the
protests. They did put 'em back afterwards, but
still, it was a pain.
> What exactly do you mean 'for your regular
> mail'?
Exactly what he said. If it's a letter that
doesn't require overnight delivery, it is
*illegal* to send it via any carrier other than
the USPS. About a year or two back, the USPS
sued a company on the basis that they sent *all*
their correspondence via FedEx, and that that
was manifestly illegal, since at least *some* of
their letters would not require overnight
delivery. They won. The company paid postage
charges to the USPS.
Slashdot Mirror
> BTW, gold is not inflation free. What do you
> think comes out of gold mines, genius?
And gold has been suffering from a very bad bout
of inflation for some time now. Ask anybody
whose been stupid enough to be a gold bug for
last 20 years or so. Gold is now worth less
than half of what it was in 1980 *in unadjusted
dollars*. Adjusted for dollar inflation, gold is worth something like a fourth of what it was then.
Chris Mattern
Somebody's been handing out crack pipes to the
moderators again. To the clueless guy who
moderated this as "Interesting", the DOS referred
to in the original article is *not* MS-DOS,
twit. Moderate this up as "Funny", maybe, but
*not* "Interesting".
Chris Mattern
OS/380? I've worked with IBM mainframes for
years and I never heard of OS/380. You're right
about the derivation of OS/360, though. They
were kinda stuck after OS/390, I guess, since
OS/400 was already taken...
Chris Mattern
> A healthy society should have neither.
What, no cameras at all?
"All right, Mr. Jones. Put the Nikon down
and back away *slowly*..."
Chris Mattern
> The rest of the letter is just crap,
> especially: "In addition, we are requesting
> that you shut down the entire forum for Efront,
> due to the criminal investigation and the
> illegal actions that have been conducted with
> the reading and gathering of such materials."
>
> What is that last clause supposed to mean?
It means, "You're saying mean things and if
you don't stop we're gonna tell our mommy!"
Chris Mattern
> US could have simply stopped there and made
> peace - after all, Japan had already lost all
> conquered land. They were no threat anymore.
> But of course the US wanted vengeance.
No, the US wanted to avoid a repeat of 1918.
If there was one thing WWI taught the Allies,
it was that you had to *finish* the job, or
it would be to do all over again the next
generation.
Chris Mattern
> Race shouldn't relly enter into the position at
> all. If the Constitution says anything about
> race, it's because at the time it was written,
> blacks only counted as 3/8 of a person.
Not quite; *slaves* counted as *3/5* of a person,
and are referred to only as "other Persons" (i.e.,
not free, indentured or Indians not taxed).
All slaves were black, but not all blacks were
slaves; the ones that weren't counted as a full
person. The only actual mention of a race in the
original Constitution was in fact Indians, who
didn't get to count at all.
Chris Mattern
> Does "jidai" mean warrior?
No, actually it means "age" or "period".
"Sen" means "war" (and "senshi" means
"warrior" or "soldier") and "goku" means
"country" or "land". I don't think this is
where Lucas got "Jedi" from.
Chris Mattern
> That would be a big boost to free/open software
> if they achieve flawless Excel import/export
Never happen. It's a moving target; if they
get flawless Excel import/export, Microsoft
will *change* Excel to break it. Standard MS
tactic.
Chris Mattern
Escaflowne. Fushigi Yuugi is neat, but the
characters can be mind-bendingly *dumb*
(especially Yuuki Miaka) that you want to beat
your head against a wall. Besides, with
Escaflowne you only need to buy one season, 26
episodes.
Chris Mattern
Close, "gomen nasai".
I'm currently watching Nadia and getting the
word "sugoi!" (wow!/amazing!/incredible!)
drilled into my head, since it seems that
somebody says it every five minutes...
Chris Mattern
> Actually, I'm sure the labor unions would be
> all for making barn raisings illegal. Can't
> have people giving away their labor and taking
> job opportunities away from union workers. If
> unions are able to grab a foothold in the
> software industry, are they going to have a
> similar perception of free software?
Naw, you don't ban barn-raising. You just
institute a building code for barns. To ensure
people's *safety*, you understand. It's really
all to protect the children. Sound familiar?
"Well, I'm sorry, Mr. King, but your barn
doesn't meet code. I'm going to have to insist
you tear it down or the county'll do it for you
and bill you for the demolition. Now, if you
like, I can give the numbers of some reliable
contractors who have a good understanding of
building things to code..."
Chris Mattern
> As for the rest of us, the majority voted for
> the other guy.
Bzzzt! Sorry, I'm afraid that answer is
incorrect. Vanna has some lovely parting
gifts for you. The majority did *not* vote for
the other guy.
Chris Mattern
It's a base station!
Chris Mattern
Chris Mattern
> "Do you have any illegal weapons?"
> "Do you have any illegal drugs?"
> Duh.
> It's probably to allow for an additional charge
> (lying to an immigration officer or some such
> crap) during a possible prosecution.
IANALO (I Am Not A Law Officer), but I'll bet
they ask those questions not for your answer
(which will of course be "No") but to gauge
your reaction to being asked it (how good a poker
player are you...?).
Chris Mattern
>> What did 90% of your responses actually mean?
> Yeah, I was laughing all the way through (just
> have no idea what at). I felt like I was
> watching an old Monty Python episode...
With all that RANDOM CAPITALIZATION, I felt like
Slashdot was interview Zippy the Pinhead...
Chris Mattern
Actually, William Morris (most famous for his
founding of the Arts and Crafts movement and,
oddly, his Socialism) probably invented epic
high fantasy as we know it today, with The
Well at the World's End.
Chris Mattern
> Anyone notice that Myst didn't have any games
> listed that were influenced by it?
Actually, they did list games that were influenced
by it; they just did it in the main text instead
of in a big sidebar. However, aside from Riven,
I'd never heard of any of the games they listed...
Chris Mattern
>> I would have said 7th guest and 11th hour
>> where influenced by myth.
I assume you mean *Myst*, since Myth and
7th Guest aren't very similar. But in either
case it is not true, since 7th Guest came out
years before either game.
Chris Mattern
>> I can't imagine what kind of a market it is
>> where businesses can actually say NO to
>> potential customers who want to give them cash
>> in hand...
Never tried to rent a car, have you? You CANNOT
rent a car for cash...
Chris Mattern
>> Having gained immortality, they became bored
>> and began improving other species. (Starcraft
>> really ripped this whole thing off...)
Scarcely the only ones. Not even the only ones
in gaming, vide _Traveller_. Everybody rips
ideas off; the question is what they do with
them. Traveller and Starcraft did good.
Chris Mattern
> Let's see, 8 x 8 = 64. Actually, no, (9 x 9) - 1 = 80. You left out the possibilities were you only move one globe. Chris Mattern
> After all, no-one is complaining that having
> open mailboxes outside every post office is a
> security problem
Yes, they are. You can no longer post packages
via public mailbox because of security reasons.
Remember the IMF protests in Washington back in
April? I work half a dozen blocks from the IMF;
I remember when the security guys came and removed
all our street mailboxes to prepare for the
protests. They did put 'em back afterwards, but
still, it was a pain.
Chris Mattern
> What exactly do you mean 'for your regular
> mail'?
Exactly what he said. If it's a letter that
doesn't require overnight delivery, it is
*illegal* to send it via any carrier other than
the USPS. About a year or two back, the USPS
sued a company on the basis that they sent *all*
their correspondence via FedEx, and that that
was manifestly illegal, since at least *some* of
their letters would not require overnight
delivery. They won. The company paid postage
charges to the USPS.
Chris Mattern