"Sure, now it's optional and only in Australia. Soon it'll be in the UK, and then the US."
Just like communism ?
Ok, I'm not saying don't be concerned. I'm not saying don't write your representatives to tell them just how opposed you are to the US following Australia's lead. But the US was so terrified that communism was going to spread through the pacific and hit Hawaii and then the continental US that they went to war in Vietnam to stop it from spreading.
Keep things in the realm of reality, please. There's a lot of things you can, and should be, doing to make your voice heard. But rampant paranoia, and how it hurts rather than helps, was already discussed on slashdot today
We have 3 computers in the house and 2 children. My computer is in the basement in my "office" (I work from home). I'm the only one who uses this computer. It's a Linux box and I lock it when I leave so I know this for a fact.
My wife's computer is in the family room simply because we don't have any where else to put it. The kids computer is also in the family room.
I'm not saying that I will never allow my kids to have an internet-accessible computer in their bedroom. But for that to become a reality I will have to believe that they are mature and responsible enough to keep their personal information private and not get "too close" to anyone that they meet online without safeguards in place. In other words it will be when they're well into their teenage years and have had many a long talk with me and their mother about privacy and personal responsibility, and that I am comfortable believing that it has sunk in.
After all, our job is to raise them into mature and responsible adults. So keeping their Internet use "public" indefinitely is directly contradictory to that belief.
I'm not sure that that's really a convincing argument for artificial controls though. The artificial controls seem to be a way to force people to be uncreative.
There are a lot of ways that one can potentially make money from selling "art". For example, if you're a photographer or a painter you can sell signed prints that are surely worth more than "copied copies".
If you're a game developer there are obviously a ton of people, maybe even the majority, who are going to torrent the game but you can find other things of value to sell to support the game. It's like a rock band selling merchandise at shows.
Of course in a world where copyright law exists it seems unfair to take it away from artists who are used to making a lot more on direct sales. The question becomes is the artificial controls "right". And given the fact that you can take something that, in and of itself, has no economic value and still use it as a tool for driving sales (think of a blog that makes money via AdSense. The words themselves have no economic value but the readers they pull in are gold) does it even still make sense to have those artificial controls ?
I just can't understand why a grown adult would not be able to leave the house because some little fucking bastard said she had fat legs on the Internet. Both the adult and the student need to grow up -- fast.
What I don't understand is the complete lack of common sense that these "education professionals" employ.
Most people know that children cross the line at some point in their youth. Making mistakes is part of growing up. It's part of being human. I would think that teachers would realize this better than anyone else. Yet expulsions and getting the law involved for what amount to 21st century versions of what children have been doing for centuries seems to indicate the converse.
If my plants start talking to me it means I need to go away for a little vacation...
Usually when plants start talking to people it means they've had enough and it's time to lay off for a little while...
In this case a vacation may be warranted so long as the subject takes a taxi to the airport and does not attempt to operate a motor vehicle him/herself.
"This needs to entail serious repercussions to discourage them or anyone else from trying things like this in the future. I'd say for a start, take the whole god damned country offline for a week and see if the King gets the point then."
Or you might be doing him a favour ? If a government were to revoke access themselves they might find themselves facing a rebellion. If someone else does it for them then the blame is passed on. The effect is, never-the-less, the same. The Internet has been censored.
Of course I completely agree that PieNet should face repercussions from PPCW and it would be nice to see *some* level of International political outcry to send the message that raining on the rest of the world will not be tolerated.
The difference being that with physical property when you take something you have clearly deprived someone of something else.
When you copy data you contribute towards diminishing it's "value", but the question must be raised: "if no one will pay money for something they can duplicate free-of-charge, does it have 'value' in an economic sense ? If not, is it 'right' for the government to enforce value by giving it's creator absolute legal control over it's distribution" ?
Most girls I talk to don't like kissing men with facial hair. Let's use invasive surgery to physically modify all of our male children so that they are no longer able to produce facial hair.
The other argument I hear all the time:
"It's cleaner" and/or "easier to clean".
Mothers all around the world have been having a hard time getting their young male children to clean behind their ears for centuries. I have a solution. Let's start removing male children's ear lobes at birth...
Many Take Two shareholders are suing the company for acting outside of the best interest of it's share holders. Other shareholders have resorted to robbing Take Two employees' cars and using them to pick up hookers before taking their money and "disposing" of them.
Study after study has found no significant health benefits sufficient enough to warrant circumcision. The American Medical Association no longer recommends the procedure and Ontario Public Health Care no longer pays for it.
It is technically true that cases of penile cancer are virtually unheard of in males with circumcision, but then again, penile cancer is SO RARE to begin with that it even begs the question of whether or not the sample size is large enough to be conclusive.
And of course, like the other poster pointed out, the children have no say in whether or not a perfectly healthy part of their body is permanently removed.
Hardware can be just as competitive an industry as software and from the manufacturers point of view they stand a great deal to lose if their competitors get a hold of their trade secrets.
You might think that how the card works is something that is trivially reverse engineered but that is not always the case. While I am not a hardware or graphics card expert, I suspect that a lot of chips, GPUs for example, likely have instruction sets and features that the manufacturers don't want their competitors to have access to, and for which closed-source drivers can take advantage of without releasing those trade secrets to the public. I'm sure there's lots of better examples too.
I wish this weren't the case. As a Linux user I'm always wanting specs to be open so better drivers can be developed. I'm really happy to see AMD taking this step.
True, but like someone else already pointed out, you can still censor them by removing their access to the Internet. Either by cutting the cable physically or blocking them at the first outside router, or in the case that already occurred, remove their DNS A records.
The way I see it, where they host is largely irrelevant as long as they're somewhere that's neutral and will protect their rights to free speech and won't succumb to political pressure to censor them. I'm not sure that such a place exists but Switzerland might be the first place I would look.
"course I am all for teaching kids how to be security conscious and protect their private data"
then what I was getting at is that one of the many things that parents should be teaching their children is how to protect their private information from people who potentially mean them harm. That lesson is applicable at an early age and it usually begins with "Don't talk to strangers".
Of course if you were asking "what private data could a 7 year old possibly have TO KEEP FROM HER PARENTS" then, assuming the parents are not abusive, I can't think of anything.
I have two daughters around the same age. They share a computer that we gave them for xmas. They have their own accounts, with their own passwords and my wife and I maintain the Administrator account. I could not fathom them having an Internet-accessible computer without us having full control over it.
Am I missing the point ? Because when I read:
"My parents would probably be able to guess non-abstract passwords"
it sounds to me like you're trying to keep a 7 year-old's parents off of a computer she uses when they have every right (and reason / responsibility in this day in age) to know what their young child is doing on a computer.
Of course I am all for teaching kids how to be security conscious and protect their private data. But it's a fine balance. Parents need to keep themselves in the loop in order to, you know, be effective parents.
If you REALLY want to hit Canada where it hurts you need to bring up Celine Dion.
Of course they will DENY, DENY, DENY... but you will have taken a piece of them forever by reminding them of their biggest skeleton they just can't seem to hide no matter how hard they try.
"Now I live on the streets, feeding my addiction through unsecured wireless hotspots that I access through a Pentium 90 connected to an exercise bike generator. My crack cocaine consumption has skyrocketed due to my need to constantly pedal the bike lest my rig lose power"
Well on the bright side, at least you're staying in shape...
I love AJAX too. It's the only thing that gets those pesky sweat stains out after long hours of developing asynchronous web applications. It also works well for getting rid of Java.
Slashdot Mirror
You inspired me to try a few out of curiosity. Not surprisingly asdf.com as well as asdfg.com and asdfgh.com are all registered.
I actually laughed when one of them served an ad titled "Learn how to type".
"Sure, now it's optional and only in Australia. Soon it'll be in the UK, and then the US."
Just like communism ?
Ok, I'm not saying don't be concerned. I'm not saying don't write your representatives to tell them just how opposed you are to the US following Australia's lead. But the US was so terrified that communism was going to spread through the pacific and hit Hawaii and then the continental US that they went to war in Vietnam to stop it from spreading.
Keep things in the realm of reality, please. There's a lot of things you can, and should be, doing to make your voice heard. But rampant paranoia, and how it hurts rather than helps, was already discussed on slashdot today
We have 3 computers in the house and 2 children. My computer is in the basement in my "office" (I work from home). I'm the only one who uses this computer. It's a Linux box and I lock it when I leave so I know this for a fact.
My wife's computer is in the family room simply because we don't have any where else to put it. The kids computer is also in the family room.
I'm not saying that I will never allow my kids to have an internet-accessible computer in their bedroom. But for that to become a reality I will have to believe that they are mature and responsible enough to keep their personal information private and not get "too close" to anyone that they meet online without safeguards in place. In other words it will be when they're well into their teenage years and have had many a long talk with me and their mother about privacy and personal responsibility, and that I am comfortable believing that it has sunk in.
After all, our job is to raise them into mature and responsible adults. So keeping their Internet use "public" indefinitely is directly contradictory to that belief.
Exactly. You can make up statistics to prove anything. 84% of all people know that.
I'm not sure that that's really a convincing argument for artificial controls though. The artificial controls seem to be a way to force people to be uncreative.
There are a lot of ways that one can potentially make money from selling "art". For example, if you're a photographer or a painter you can sell signed prints that are surely worth more than "copied copies".
If you're a game developer there are obviously a ton of people, maybe even the majority, who are going to torrent the game but you can find other things of value to sell to support the game. It's like a rock band selling merchandise at shows.
Of course in a world where copyright law exists it seems unfair to take it away from artists who are used to making a lot more on direct sales. The question becomes is the artificial controls "right". And given the fact that you can take something that, in and of itself, has no economic value and still use it as a tool for driving sales (think of a blog that makes money via AdSense. The words themselves have no economic value but the readers they pull in are gold) does it even still make sense to have those artificial controls ?
I didn't mean to suggest that there should be no consequences.
I'm just confused by the constant overreaction.
I just can't understand why a grown adult would not be able to leave the house because some little fucking bastard said she had fat legs on the Internet. Both the adult and the student need to grow up -- fast.
What I don't understand is the complete lack of common sense that these "education professionals" employ.
Most people know that children cross the line at some point in their youth. Making mistakes is part of growing up. It's part of being human. I would think that teachers would realize this better than anyone else. Yet expulsions and getting the law involved for what amount to 21st century versions of what children have been doing for centuries seems to indicate the converse.
If my plants start talking to me it means I need to go away for a little vacation...
...
Usually when plants start talking to people it means they've had enough and it's time to lay off for a little while
In this case a vacation may be warranted so long as the subject takes a taxi to the airport and does not attempt to operate a motor vehicle him/herself.
"This needs to entail serious repercussions to discourage them or anyone else from trying things like this in the future. I'd say for a start, take the whole god damned country offline for a week and see if the King gets the point then."
Or you might be doing him a favour ? If a government were to revoke access themselves they might find themselves facing a rebellion. If someone else does it for them then the blame is passed on. The effect is, never-the-less, the same. The Internet has been censored.
Of course I completely agree that PieNet should face repercussions from PPCW and it would be nice to see *some* level of International political outcry to send the message that raining on the rest of the world will not be tolerated.
The difference being that with physical property when you take something you have clearly deprived someone of something else.
When you copy data you contribute towards diminishing it's "value", but the question must be raised: "if no one will pay money for something they can duplicate free-of-charge, does it have 'value' in an economic sense ? If not, is it 'right' for the government to enforce value by giving it's creator absolute legal control over it's distribution" ?
I don't have an answer to either question.
Ouch and to think I'm a grammar Nazi myself. I can't believe I let that one slip :(
Wait, did I just invoke Godwin's law ? I double suck today.
Most girls I talk to don't like kissing men with facial hair. Let's use invasive surgery to physically modify all of our male children so that they are no longer able to produce facial hair.
...
The other argument I hear all the time:
"It's cleaner" and/or "easier to clean".
Mothers all around the world have been having a hard time getting their young male children to clean behind their ears for centuries. I have a solution. Let's start removing male children's ear lobes at birth
Many Take Two shareholders are suing the company for acting outside of the best interest of it's share holders. Other shareholders have resorted to robbing Take Two employees' cars and using them to pick up hookers before taking their money and "disposing" of them.
Sounds like a good enough reason to write your representatives and let them know how you feel about where your tax dollars are going.
Study after study has found no significant health benefits sufficient enough to warrant circumcision. The American Medical Association no longer recommends the procedure and Ontario Public Health Care no longer pays for it.
It is technically true that cases of penile cancer are virtually unheard of in males with circumcision, but then again, penile cancer is SO RARE to begin with that it even begs the question of whether or not the sample size is large enough to be conclusive.
And of course, like the other poster pointed out, the children have no say in whether or not a perfectly healthy part of their body is permanently removed.
Hardware can be just as competitive an industry as software and from the manufacturers point of view they stand a great deal to lose if their competitors get a hold of their trade secrets.
You might think that how the card works is something that is trivially reverse engineered but that is not always the case. While I am not a hardware or graphics card expert, I suspect that a lot of chips, GPUs for example, likely have instruction sets and features that the manufacturers don't want their competitors to have access to, and for which closed-source drivers can take advantage of without releasing those trade secrets to the public. I'm sure there's lots of better examples too.
I wish this weren't the case. As a Linux user I'm always wanting specs to be open so better drivers can be developed. I'm really happy to see AMD taking this step.
Huh ?
Sorry but this is slashdot. Sticking it to Microsoft NEVER gets old.
Are you new around here or something ?
True, but like someone else already pointed out, you can still censor them by removing their access to the Internet. Either by cutting the cable physically or blocking them at the first outside router, or in the case that already occurred, remove their DNS A records.
The way I see it, where they host is largely irrelevant as long as they're somewhere that's neutral and will protect their rights to free speech and won't succumb to political pressure to censor them. I'm not sure that such a place exists but Switzerland might be the first place I would look.
That's the downside to democracy. The minority always get screwed. And sometimes the minority can be a pretty damned large group.
Until 51% of the population decide to unanimously enact change then said change is unlikely. Not impossible, mind you. But unlikely.
If that was in response to:
"course I am all for teaching kids how to be security conscious and protect their private data"
then what I was getting at is that one of the many things that parents should be teaching their children is how to protect their private information from people who potentially mean them harm. That lesson is applicable at an early age and it usually begins with "Don't talk to strangers".
Of course if you were asking "what private data could a 7 year old possibly have TO KEEP FROM HER PARENTS" then, assuming the parents are not abusive, I can't think of anything.
Seriously, she's 7?!
I have two daughters around the same age. They share a computer that we gave them for xmas. They have their own accounts, with their own passwords and my wife and I maintain the Administrator account. I could not fathom them having an Internet-accessible computer without us having full control over it.
Am I missing the point ? Because when I read:
"My parents would probably be able to guess non-abstract passwords"
it sounds to me like you're trying to keep a 7 year-old's parents off of a computer she uses when they have every right (and reason / responsibility in this day in age) to know what their young child is doing on a computer.
Of course I am all for teaching kids how to be security conscious and protect their private data. But it's a fine balance. Parents need to keep themselves in the loop in order to, you know, be effective parents.
South Park was playing nice ...
... but you will have taken a piece of them forever by reminding them of their biggest skeleton they just can't seem to hide no matter how hard they try.
...
If you REALLY want to hit Canada where it hurts you need to bring up Celine Dion.
Of course they will DENY, DENY, DENY
Urgh, I feel dirty for just bringing it up
"Now I live on the streets, feeding my addiction through unsecured wireless hotspots that I access through a Pentium 90 connected to an exercise bike generator. My crack cocaine consumption has skyrocketed due to my need to constantly pedal the bike lest my rig lose power"
...
Well on the bright side, at least you're staying in shape
I love AJAX too. It's the only thing that gets those pesky sweat stains out after long hours of developing asynchronous web applications. It also works well for getting rid of Java.
You can already see that happening. We call them "BSD users" :P
(Disclaimer: this post is an attempt at humour, not a troll. We all love you BSD)