Actually, one of the key benefits of Mage: The Ascension, is its creation of a language in which to discuss concepts of whether or not reality is based on Belief or Actuality. Where does the concept of relativity fit into an absolute world?
To one person I am a slacker, to another I am a deep thinker, and to another I don't even exist. My father considers what I do to be 'pansy-assed' my colleagues think I am one of the hardest workers around, and my friends don't understand what I do. I can go to a bar, meet someone new and create a whole new identity.
Mage does play a role in this discussion only because it is a product of the discussion. It would not have existed if people weren't struggling with the ideas of Flexible Reality and Perception Based Reality. These issues will become more prevalent as we progress into Virtual Worlds. Already there are issues of whether or not cyber-rape has any actual psychological trauma.
The concepts in Mage: The Ascension parallel literature back to the Greek and Hebrew mythology. Prometheus and fire, Adam, Eve and the Tree of Knowledge are but two examples of enlightenment.
This is neither new nor revolutionary, and seeing Mage and Shadowrun have been around for many years, quite dilatory. The idea of the Net being a catalyst for awakening has also been dealt with in the cyberpunk genre. The Truman Show, Dark City, The Matrix, and recently The Cell, all have dealt with a concept of a manufactured reality, coming to terms with it and then using it to an advantage.
I guess, in my attempt not to become a Jon Katz ragger, I am struggling to understand the purpose of this article. The meta conversation regarding whether or not it is in itself an attempt to force an awakening is moot since by its own terms it is already being aimed at 'the awakened'.
No matter what you say about these kind of tax policies, they are fairly common. What is even more sad is they arise out of a genuine concern and a desire to do what is right. If such a tax strategy were truly written with the interests of artists/writers at heart, wouldn't the money collected go more towards enriching these individuals? It should, but the intervening agents (read: featured villains MPAA/RIAA members) end up collecting these funds. The media companies realize they really don't need the artists because the public rely so much on them, they can elevate any schmuck to a superstar (aka the Johnny Bravo Syndrome).
So while legislators are trying to protect the creators/originators of the work, the intervening corporations reap the rewards. IMHO, the only way to get the ball rolling in the correct direction is to have more artist types (writers, musicians, painters, etc.) run for political office. Look at the steps taken by Sonny Bono when he was in office?
Unfortunately, these types of people are the last to want to get into the sewers of politics. Geekdom is similar in its dislike of the day to day issues of politics. So it looks like we need a few martyrs to take the bullet for the rest of us so we can avoid these kinds of taxing strategies.
The government should never subsidize something that isn't vital to national survival. Media corporations are not vital to national survival, family farms, dairy farms, high tech research, and ocean exploration are (IMO). Time to get our priorities set.
...even then they would not be happy because people could hum tunes or act out what they'd seen on the TV.
In other news, two co-workers were arrested for piracy when one told the other in explicit detail what had occured in the summer hit movie 'Scary Movie'. The MPAA spokesperson said, "Water cooler chat is killing the movies. Why would anyone watch a show when they can hear all about it from their friends and co-workers? This is why we have requested a complete gag order on anyone who has entered a movie theater. If you buy a ticket, you are essentially entering into a non-disclosure agreement with the movie studio not to relate any detail of the movie to anyone." The MPAA has also extended this gag order to any person reviewing the movie, with exceptions only going to people who get their reviews OK'd by a local MPAA spokesperson.
Tomorrow...the RIAA sues people taping songs from the radio.
Up until now, the MPAA has had the benefit of working against obscurity. Few people knew or cared about DeCSS. But a great deal of American's know about their VCR's and what they can do with them (even if they can't work the digital clock).
Start messing with what people have already come to accept as a God Given Right (the right to watch the porno they taped off of The Hot Network at 2am anytime they please) and you'll rampant, flagrant violations.
Essentially, a congressman pays a little attention when a small group affected by a ruling writes. But when a vast majority of MiddleAmerica(TM) begin to get pissed off, that congressional representative starts to hold hearings to guarantee his constituent feel he is doing his job.
I don't see this as poor form. His comments were clearly deliminated from the original text. The style of point-counter point actually makes a more lucid argument in this style of commentary. Now whether you agree with the counter points is a different matter altogether.
Furthermore, I don't see any difference accept I don't have to refer back to the original response while reading the counter points. My only one suggestion would have been to link to the original message just for integrity issues (to make sure nothing was edited out). But Slashdot has never been that kind of news source, so I don't expect it to begin now. I am satisfied to have been given this basic information to pursue as I see fit.
Ahhh, but if I design my own screwdriver which works just as well, IBM can't come after my ass. COMPAQ has a few 'proprietary' screws that they want only a special screwdriver to work, but anyone who has an extensive allen wrench kit will be able to get by.
IMHO, if a company wants to try to limit access through specialized tools, fine, but they shouldn't be able to stop me from using whatever tools I want or develop on my own.
Did you see the Pearl 9 Design website? Pearl 9 Design is the designer of the Flash VOS website. I'm not an amazing website designer, but I can at very least put in meta tags.
I would say if you are in a technological industry and don't want to put up a full scale website, then put up a very straightforward 'business card' site.
It is possible to configure your slashdot preferences to ignore anime stories. Pesonally, I only find less than 10% worthwhile, but I enjoy reading about it, much like I enjoy reading about technology I won't even begin to understand.
Is it News for Nerds? Yes. Is it News for You? No. Nerds come in all shapes and varieties, which means you can go to your preferences and select the type of nerd you want to be. It is when the entire Slashdot community says a story shouldn't be here that there is a problem. But when a significant number respond and like the story, I guess that is a good determinate it belongs.
If this is a response to the fact this story got put up while others did not, well, all I can say is there are many other sites like this and worse comes to worse you can grab the slashcode and put up your own site with editorial control over the stories.
I've done similar searches for Flash VOS and FlashVOS through all the tech news services I normally read, Google, Alta-Vista, and Yahoo! and came up with nothing.
A link: search on Alta-Vista turns up Pearl 9 Design which lists Flash VOS as a client. Pearl 9 Design has a mission statement that states, "Endeavor to bear standards beyond the ordinary." And looking at their site and the FlashVOS site, their concept of ordinary must be really low.
Secondly, the other clients Pearl 9 List, don't exist (or at least the links don't work). Looking at who FlashVOS lists as business partners and the list on Pearl 9 clients...I see a large amount of overlap.
Seeing that this looks like a big ol' hoax, and the fact that they are taking credit card orders, I suspect something malicious. From the broken links, the lack of anything to download, the lack of a user guide, the lack of screenshots, one can oly conclude that this is a pure vaporware site, or something criminal. I've written to the President of Flash VOS to have him contact Slashdot to verify his company's product (which is selling for just $30!).
Can't help but sense the hostility from the multiple posts given to what you seem to believe is a social injustice.
I have to say anyone with half a brain, who is in charge of doing the upgrades for PERL in their production environment would also be bright enough to catch the DEVEL in the title of the article, or if worse came to worse, would read the notes regarding the fact that this is a Development Release and not for production.
Alas, a more savvy 'journalist' would have edited the original statement, but at some point in time you have to assume the audience has a base intelligence in regards to the subject matter. Anyone who believes a random report to make business decisions will always end up with the short end of the stick.
or one of the other states that doesn't have a sales tax. This seems like a simplistic approach, especially since Montana and these other states lack the infrastructure to maintain the servers and such for dot-com stores. But I'd say rapid development would alleviate long term tax problems.
Okay, there is the physical location aspect to overcome. But don't stores already pay property tax on their physical locations? What about the payroll taxes from the employees of these companies? How much tax from the consumer do these god damned governments need?
The Olympics have totally lost their true meaning (if we even understood what that true meaning ever was). If an athlete wants to keep an online journal, it should be encouraged. Okay, so I may actually read someone's journal over watching a little biography of their life. Why? Because the person keeping the journal may actually be from my homestate and she isn't expected to win big in anything so they won't do any special feature on her.
I am shocked the US Olympic Committee agreed to this. This is a better reason to boycott the Olympics than many of the other reasons people give. Denying athletes basic fundamental rights is sickening. So much for freedom of speech. Even if it isn't a universal concept, each American athlete should protest in his/her own fashion.
Ultimately, the scariest aspect of this is to be reminded we don't have an organized program monitoring for killer asteroids. While forewarning might make that big of a difference if we don't have the technology to divert/destroy/deflect the asteroid, at least other types of precautions could be taken.
With all this talk about a Missile Defense program which is almost completely pointles s, I'd be more interested in a asteroid defense system.
On a side note, with all the treaties against space based nukes, has any country ever tested a nuke in a vacuum? Maybe that would ignite our atmosphere and in a Twilight Zonian twist, the asteroid wouldn't hit the earth and we would have been destroyed by our own ignorance. Or not. Depends who is writing it and who is producing.
I have to agree that adding an email client is less important than having a portable browser. There are too many web interfaces that let you retrieve email that I never worry about not accessing my email so long as I can access the web.
But there are many instances when I am faced with a computer that doesn't have a browser installed, which I then have to consider if I want to ftp one or give up. If I could carry a browse on disk (not burned to a cd) then I would be two steps ahead.
I was always curious about why 'The Man' didn't create a hybrid marijuana plant that lacked THC in any notable quantity and play with it enough so it is the dominant trait. Then just sow the seeds of poor quality weed.
Of course, 'The Man' would also breed a high quality THC plant in order to funnel into the market to make money behind the scenes.
With all this gene splicing, we are one step closer. Hippies unite, buy your hydroponic equipment now!
Toss in one of those patented computer to computer foreign currency transaction (muck like AmEx, Visa, and MasterCard does) and voila, you have a world wide payment system and I don't even have to know how many dollars go into a rupie or vice versa.
Homeless just start wearing Skim.com outerwear so people walking buy can spit off a few bucks to them via their Handspring Visors (or your PDA of choice).
"Buddy can you beam me a few bucks?"
Damn, it will totally take away my standard response...I don't got it on me.
I see you've made the jump right to human's with caffeine producing genes (one cannibal to another, "I knew these caffeinated people are bad for me, but I'm so addicted") but I think there are much better things to splice caffeine into.
Caffeinated fruit. Strawberries, bananas, grapes, oranges, you get the picture. Be healthy and get your wake up effect. Or just caffeinated tomatoes to help make Bloody Mary's better.
Caffeinated coffee beans. What?, you say, aren't coffee beans already caffeinated? Yep. But who says you can't enhance the genetic sequence to get the Super-Caffeinated bean?
Caffeinated malt, barley, and hops for the perfect all natural Beer for a little of the hair of the dog that bit you and a quick pick me up.
If paper distribution of the code is considered illegal, is it illegal because paper with computer code is considered a device?
What constitutes a device anyway?
I think I am stunned that this case has gotten this far. We all knew this would be the MPAA's next step. I really hope this is a death spasm and not the action of a trade group taking advantage of a favorable ruling by a judge who has a questionable link with the trade group.
My biggest fear is too much ground will be covered with Kaplan that it will take several years to properly undo.
I too just recently started using Zone Alarm and have discovered all sorts of apps I have been running want to access the internet. I deny everything that shouldn't be using the internet (like Word) and haven't yet run into any problems.
But in a company setting...I wonder how far this thing could go? I am tempted to create a bunch of documents just to implement a bug tracker in them.
The other benefit of this idea is it does require a subpoena to access the records about who owns a PO Box. A letter to the rental place would mean diddly.
Dear MailBox Mania:
We have become aware that the owner(s) of P.O. Box 6102 has been using that P.O. Box to distribute literature containing computer code that is used to circumvent the encyption method used on DVD's.
The owner(s) are in direct violation of the DMCA. You will hand over the name and physical address of these people to us.
It would seem, in the hypothetical case you have outlined, MPAA would go after each party who knowingly did this. If you knew your text would be turned into links, then you are at fault. The mail program is just doing what it was supposed to. The user who requested the info, knowingly requested info regarding the 'Criminal Code'.
Slashdot Mirror
To one person I am a slacker, to another I am a deep thinker, and to another I don't even exist. My father considers what I do to be 'pansy-assed' my colleagues think I am one of the hardest workers around, and my friends don't understand what I do. I can go to a bar, meet someone new and create a whole new identity.
Mage does play a role in this discussion only because it is a product of the discussion. It would not have existed if people weren't struggling with the ideas of Flexible Reality and Perception Based Reality. These issues will become more prevalent as we progress into Virtual Worlds. Already there are issues of whether or not cyber-rape has any actual psychological trauma.
This is neither new nor revolutionary, and seeing Mage and Shadowrun have been around for many years, quite dilatory. The idea of the Net being a catalyst for awakening has also been dealt with in the cyberpunk genre. The Truman Show, Dark City, The Matrix, and recently The Cell, all have dealt with a concept of a manufactured reality, coming to terms with it and then using it to an advantage.
I guess, in my attempt not to become a Jon Katz ragger, I am struggling to understand the purpose of this article. The meta conversation regarding whether or not it is in itself an attempt to force an awakening is moot since by its own terms it is already being aimed at 'the awakened'.
Can anyone throw me a clue?
So while legislators are trying to protect the creators/originators of the work, the intervening corporations reap the rewards. IMHO, the only way to get the ball rolling in the correct direction is to have more artist types (writers, musicians, painters, etc.) run for political office. Look at the steps taken by Sonny Bono when he was in office?
Unfortunately, these types of people are the last to want to get into the sewers of politics. Geekdom is similar in its dislike of the day to day issues of politics. So it looks like we need a few martyrs to take the bullet for the rest of us so we can avoid these kinds of taxing strategies.
The government should never subsidize something that isn't vital to national survival. Media corporations are not vital to national survival, family farms, dairy farms, high tech research, and ocean exploration are (IMO). Time to get our priorities set.
In other news, two co-workers were arrested for piracy when one told the other in explicit detail what had occured in the summer hit movie 'Scary Movie'. The MPAA spokesperson said, "Water cooler chat is killing the movies. Why would anyone watch a show when they can hear all about it from their friends and co-workers? This is why we have requested a complete gag order on anyone who has entered a movie theater. If you buy a ticket, you are essentially entering into a non-disclosure agreement with the movie studio not to relate any detail of the movie to anyone." The MPAA has also extended this gag order to any person reviewing the movie, with exceptions only going to people who get their reviews OK'd by a local MPAA spokesperson.
Tomorrow...the RIAA sues people taping songs from the radio.
Start messing with what people have already come to accept as a God Given Right (the right to watch the porno they taped off of The Hot Network at 2am anytime they please) and you'll rampant, flagrant violations.
Essentially, a congressman pays a little attention when a small group affected by a ruling writes. But when a vast majority of MiddleAmerica(TM) begin to get pissed off, that congressional representative starts to hold hearings to guarantee his constituent feel he is doing his job.
I can't wait for this to play out.
Furthermore, I don't see any difference accept I don't have to refer back to the original response while reading the counter points. My only one suggestion would have been to link to the original message just for integrity issues (to make sure nothing was edited out). But Slashdot has never been that kind of news source, so I don't expect it to begin now. I am satisfied to have been given this basic information to pursue as I see fit.
IMHO, if a company wants to try to limit access through specialized tools, fine, but they shouldn't be able to stop me from using whatever tools I want or develop on my own.
I would say if you are in a technological industry and don't want to put up a full scale website, then put up a very straightforward 'business card' site.
Is it News for Nerds? Yes. Is it News for You? No. Nerds come in all shapes and varieties, which means you can go to your preferences and select the type of nerd you want to be. It is when the entire Slashdot community says a story shouldn't be here that there is a problem. But when a significant number respond and like the story, I guess that is a good determinate it belongs.
If this is a response to the fact this story got put up while others did not, well, all I can say is there are many other sites like this and worse comes to worse you can grab the slashcode and put up your own site with editorial control over the stories.
A link: search on Alta-Vista turns up Pearl 9 Design which lists Flash VOS as a client. Pearl 9 Design has a mission statement that states, "Endeavor to bear standards beyond the ordinary." And looking at their site and the FlashVOS site, their concept of ordinary must be really low.
Secondly, the other clients Pearl 9 List, don't exist (or at least the links don't work). Looking at who FlashVOS lists as business partners and the list on Pearl 9 clients...I see a large amount of overlap.
Seeing that this looks like a big ol' hoax, and the fact that they are taking credit card orders, I suspect something malicious. From the broken links, the lack of anything to download, the lack of a user guide, the lack of screenshots, one can oly conclude that this is a pure vaporware site, or something criminal. I've written to the President of Flash VOS to have him contact Slashdot to verify his company's product (which is selling for just $30!).
I have to say anyone with half a brain, who is in charge of doing the upgrades for PERL in their production environment would also be bright enough to catch the DEVEL in the title of the article, or if worse came to worse, would read the notes regarding the fact that this is a Development Release and not for production.
Alas, a more savvy 'journalist' would have edited the original statement, but at some point in time you have to assume the audience has a base intelligence in regards to the subject matter. Anyone who believes a random report to make business decisions will always end up with the short end of the stick.
Okay, there is the physical location aspect to overcome. But don't stores already pay property tax on their physical locations? What about the payroll taxes from the employees of these companies? How much tax from the consumer do these god damned governments need?
But thanks for the illumination in regards to the subject.
I am shocked the US Olympic Committee agreed to this. This is a better reason to boycott the Olympics than many of the other reasons people give. Denying athletes basic fundamental rights is sickening. So much for freedom of speech. Even if it isn't a universal concept, each American athlete should protest in his/her own fashion.
With all this talk about a Missile Defense program which is almost completely pointles s, I'd be more interested in a asteroid defense system.
On a side note, with all the treaties against space based nukes, has any country ever tested a nuke in a vacuum? Maybe that would ignite our atmosphere and in a Twilight Zonian twist, the asteroid wouldn't hit the earth and we would have been destroyed by our own ignorance. Or not. Depends who is writing it and who is producing.
But there are many instances when I am faced with a computer that doesn't have a browser installed, which I then have to consider if I want to ftp one or give up. If I could carry a browse on disk (not burned to a cd) then I would be two steps ahead.
If information wants to be free, it also wants to be tainted and biased.
I was always curious about why 'The Man' didn't create a hybrid marijuana plant that lacked THC in any notable quantity and play with it enough so it is the dominant trait. Then just sow the seeds of poor quality weed. Of course, 'The Man' would also breed a high quality THC plant in order to funnel into the market to make money behind the scenes. With all this gene splicing, we are one step closer. Hippies unite, buy your hydroponic equipment now!
Toss in one of those patented computer to computer foreign currency transaction (muck like AmEx, Visa, and MasterCard does) and voila, you have a world wide payment system and I don't even have to know how many dollars go into a rupie or vice versa.
"Buddy can you beam me a few bucks?"
Damn, it will totally take away my standard response...I don't got it on me.
Caffeinated fruit. Strawberries, bananas, grapes, oranges, you get the picture. Be healthy and get your wake up effect. Or just caffeinated tomatoes to help make Bloody Mary's better.
Caffeinated coffee beans. What?, you say, aren't coffee beans already caffeinated? Yep. But who says you can't enhance the genetic sequence to get the Super-Caffeinated bean?
Caffeinated malt, barley, and hops for the perfect all natural Beer for a little of the hair of the dog that bit you and a quick pick me up.
What constitutes a device anyway?
I think I am stunned that this case has gotten this far. We all knew this would be the MPAA's next step. I really hope this is a death spasm and not the action of a trade group taking advantage of a favorable ruling by a judge who has a questionable link with the trade group.
My biggest fear is too much ground will be covered with Kaplan that it will take several years to properly undo.
But in a company setting...I wonder how far this thing could go? I am tempted to create a bunch of documents just to implement a bug tracker in them.
Dear MailBox Mania:
We have become aware that the owner(s) of P.O. Box 6102 has been using that P.O. Box to distribute literature containing computer code that is used to circumvent the encyption method used on DVD's.
The owner(s) are in direct violation of the DMCA. You will hand over the name and physical address of these people to us.
Thank you,
Murderers, Pugilists, Assassins, and, Arsonists (MPAA)
It wouldn't fly. The MPAA would actually have to *gasp* get a court order and would be prevented from making a blanket demand.
It would seem, in the hypothetical case you have outlined, MPAA would go after each party who knowingly did this. If you knew your text would be turned into links, then you are at fault. The mail program is just doing what it was supposed to. The user who requested the info, knowingly requested info regarding the 'Criminal Code'.