Are you people saying that my video card and these "frame rates" are what are probably causing me to lose chess matches online and to never quite get all 40 bonus bugs in the Galaga challenge rounds? Should I be looking for a new card, or will adjusting the resolution help?
Don't most car manufacturers make you bring your car into their shop for regular maintenence and any warrantied repairs if you don't want to violate your EULA, er, lease or warranty?
Perhaps we should be comparing Linux to bicycles or motorcycles, which to my mind are what all real tinkerers (or maniacs-- not neccesarily exclusive) drive.
Some days I wonder what I'm smoking. Obviously RMS is opposed to artificial restrictions on sharing of information, like ridiculous copyright laws. Please forgive me.
Why do you people insist on equating RMS with the abolition of intellectual property? Instead you should equate the abolition of intellectual property with warez traders and "pirates", these people not only refuse to recognize the intellectual property rights of others, but go out of their way to infringe those rights. Mr. Stallman takes a hardline position that freedom is important. But he both relies on the notion of intellectual property to prevent the theft of that freedom and respects the rights of others to restrict their intellectual property. Perhaps he has stated that he has no sympathy for those who have their intellectual property infringed upon because they are predatory, but why would he go to extraordinary lengths to create freedom-minded solutions when creating unauthorized copies has always been a much easier approach?
Those are nice features for a database to have, but they are not necessary to join the database club. Can we save the semantic arguments for something important? I mean, if this isn't a database, what would you like us to call it?
Note: I do not use MySQL, I use postgreSQL. Of course, I frequently use Perl to interface with it, and that's not really a programming language, so what do I know, huh?
You are absolutely correct. However, from all indications in the press, this crack was open for three months-- which is plenty of time to quietly make changes that get into the backup sequence and into the master source tree (there can be many copies, but sooner or later source must be merged unless each MS developer is working on a completely forked piece of software). And if this crack exists, are there others? Also, this is a company well-known for easter eggs. Not that I didn't think the Excel flight simulator wasn't fun, but think about what the whole idea of easter egg means in terms of security policy. I'm not saying they can't clean their software up or that there is even a reason to believe it was corrupted (trojan code still has to compile and not cause bugs during testing in order to make it back out of the corporation). But how would we know? And do you really trust them to be as careful or as truthful about it as you'd like?
This may be a case of social engineering, but please don't gloss over the fact that it is Microsoft themselves who have repeatedly and loudly condemned Linux and who still, at this page on their site claim the Linux security model is weak. They spend a lot of time, money, and effort to put Linux in an extremely bad light. If they can't secure their own network using their own software, then I seriously question how their user base is to be expected to do the same. This points up how incredibly difficult it is to secure their software, yet they claim it is superior to other models out there.
Also, a quote from their spokesdroid, "We are confident that the integrity of Microsoft source code remains secure." (MSNBC article). I'm not so sure I believe them. Can they prove it? Is there any consulting firm in the world not on the Microsoft payroll who will be allowed to study their source to determine that it hasn't been trojaned by Russian subversives (or Steve Jobs or whoever cracked them)? I humbly suggest that from this day forward, there is no guarantee that any newly compiled software or patch hasn't been corrupted. While there's no need for gloating and "moronic childish chants", the fact remains that their source may be compromised and their security through obscurity model does not satisfy even the weakest security policies. This is not a problem we have with Linux or BSD-- which certainly have had holes in them, no denying it. But when you have someone telling you that you should trust them, and please pay mightily for our product, and, yes, you'll just have to trust us that it works the way we say it does (even though we can't seem to keep ourselves secure)-- oh and that Free software that you can obtain for a fraction of the cost and that you are able to review, modify, and share as you will? It sucks.
They do not deserve any leniency whatsoever. Their model is the one that is broken. It is based on trust. They can't buy that with any amount of marketing or legal shenanigans. Trust must be earned. And right now, they get none from me.
Exactly, considering that they stand to gain a lot more by selling these at $300-$350 a pop than by waiting around for some other console to be a price competitor. Especially given the warning signs in the US economy regarding sales, consumer debt, and the general health of major retailers, this is not a good time to have potential buyers having to wait-- they might decide they can't afford it.
I'm afraid I don't quite follow your math here. It must be Reaganomics or fuzzy or something. You have set the constant C to the value of the expression a-b=0. What you need to do in order to illustrate McReynolds point is set it like this:
a = gross income
b = tax (negative b indicates payment to individual)
c = federal poverty line
He proposes the following equation be applied to your tax computation each April: a - b = c
This is an imperfect model since I'm sure he does not intend that for a > c for b to act as a complete level, but to be created such that the sum of all positive b (b`) and all negative b (b``) is equal. In fact, as long as c is scientifically and reasonably defined (i.e. poverty is actually poverty and not relative comfort), this encourages all business owners to pay a reasonable wage in the first place. Because then as b`` -> 0, so b` -> 0 (since b` + b`` = 0 and the function expressing b is something of the sort of y = xb^3 -- although to support other government functions this would actually be y = xb^3 + d, where d = money needed for programs). Business leaders could reduce their own income tax to zero simply by paying wages at or above the poverty level. What a revolutionary concept! People who work should not have to live in poverty!
I strongly support government funding of research and development (although I prefer it to happen in places like Universities than at defense contractor corporations). However, it is not clear to me at this point how much existing R&D is actually funded by government. What about drug companies? They claim they spend millions to develop new drugs-- and luckily for them the patent system (which I oppose) protects their monopoly on those things and allows them incredible opportunity for profit. How do you counter such an example of the positive ability of corporations being able to rely on intellectual property laws to further the advance of science?
No. It isn't nearly full yet. There's plenty of more room for perverts, sickos, and chimps on the net. In fact, I go whole days on the web/IRC/AIM/freechess/Slashdot without running into any obviously maladapted folks. Adding Usenet to the mix can quickly change that, but even then, staying out of certainly binary-centric groups seems to work well. I'm guessing that the internet is no more replete with the bad people than the average corporate office, shopping mall, post office, university, major league sporting event, or sidewalk.
Finally, as far as your rhetorical sisters and daughters are concerned, I really think they have more to worry about from their friends and family than they do from anonymous strangers on the net. All of the feminist readings I've done and women I've discussed this with indicate that family members or date-rapists (and party-rapists) are far more to be feared than someone online.
You don't need to be extra careful WHO you are chatting with, you need to be careful WHAT you are chatting about and HOW MUCH you tell potentially threatening individuals that may help them injure you (and to be aware of data about you that may be available which helps them fill in the blanks). Finally, although I have to say I wouldn't want my rhetorical daughter to be sex-chatting some old guy, I certainly would think that if I felt she had made the decision to do so in full awareness (and was old enough to understand the conversation), that such behavior was harmless. However, if that guy showed up my rhetorical house seeking that rhetorical daughter, he would be greeted with some rhetorically heated lead fired from a rhetorical shotgun and dumped in a rhetorical body of water. Rhetorically speaking of course.:)
In fact, the PS2 having a builtin DVD is the only way there is going to be ANY DVD player in my house. This is a brilliant move on the part of Sony, who will have to erase the market for current release VHS before I switch out of that format for a format which does not allow recording, is region-encoded, will not seriously boost sound or video quality on my piss-poor TV (the only solution there is a new TV), won't play any of my large library of VHS tapes, and won't allow me to go find rare releases from the last 20 years and have a chance of being able to watch them. However, as soon as I buy a PS2 so that I can play some killer new game, I will also be able to play my old PSX games, and I'll have access to the DVD market as a bonus. Now, unless I'm a modern gaming fanatic, you tell me why would I buy any other console?
Absolutely a typo. This work does not inspire feeling, especially not as a scan on the internet. To be fair to it, I would still be interested to see it in a gallery setting since it is large. I always remember thinking that Rothko couldn't paint either, until I stood in front of one of his pieces.
As a person with a degree in fine art, who has actually managed to sell artwork, and is a regular attendee at galleries and museums, I have to agree with this sentiment, if not the exact wording.
The piece taken as a whole is incoherent at best. There are 1000 of these screen shots, but they are not arranged in any way that is actually pleasing. Nothing in the work speaks to the electronic scribble origination of the screen shots-- unless you want to state that the presentation is so incredibly sterile as to be unmistakably machine made. Some of the individual scribbles appear to be incredibly graceful, which makes the whole thing that much more tragic in it's complete lack of coherence. I find it appalling that any real meaning assigned to this piece will have to be scraped together post hoc, and that if the artist had any intentions in the creative process that they are largely unexpressed.
Finally, as I somewhat stated already, the part of this piece that comes from having been executed in part on a Palm is irrelevant. This same effect could have been achieved by painting a grid on a canvas and then scribbling in each of the spaces. I'd be a lot more impressed if the Palm had been used as a tool rather than as a kind artistic buzzword to obtain legitimacy for what is otherwise an empty art object. For instance, why not use Tealpaint to capture quick sketches of places/things/etc that wouldn't be practical to take a traditional analog drawing/painting tool too. Because the Palm is symbiotic with a PC, this could lead to a remote reworking of the sketches. But this work completely overlooks the Palm's dependence on a second system.
Finally, I don't think art can't simply be beautiful, elegant, or even ugly without making a point of some sort, but this is utterly NULL. It says nothing. It does appear to inspire feeling. It won't even match the carpet in a corporate lobby.
The lawsuit's defendents are clearly stated on this document. Both Mr. Goldstein and 2600 are listed. Either way, I doubt Mr. Goldstein would be afforded the typical protection of the State given to white collar criminals by the legal shenanigans surrounding business incorporation. Protection of corporate directors and principals from any real responsibility for crimes committed by the entities they supposedly control is typically reserved for large companies who have through decades of marketing efforts convinced the citizenry that to attack their company is to attack the American Way. This is not the case here as 2600 is a solid dissident voice and has already been ascribed outlaw tendencies by the Judicial system far beyond those merited by this single act of disobedience.
Actually, this is likely. Once I was speaking with an IRS on the telephone and part of the verification process included a short discussion of my birthdate, which was entered incorrectly in their file. The agent said that they get this information from the SSA and told me I should call them to discuss the matter more fully. The beauty of it was that my birthdate had been accidentally changed during a routine update (name change) of my SSA file-- then the SSA gave me a complete run-around in order to have it changed back to the obviously correct and former value, but that's a whole other story.
I could run Connectix Virtual PC with Red Hat I suppose. But that would not preclude me from polluting one of my actual x86 machines with this foulness.
This is sick and wrong. Very much so. Why not just post links to goatse.cx and call that an article? I feel dirty dual booting my Mac, I can't imagine how I'd feel actually running MS software inside a Linux GUI.
Re:Price-Performance of "iCubes" and other Macs
on
X On OSX Now Free
·
· Score: 2
For all of it's bluntness this is one of the most effective summaries that I've seen of this entire discussion about the differences in chip speeds and when it is and isn't important or significant. It certainly underscores some of the very real reasons why Apple machines might be a rational purchase, while simultaneously pointing out some of the smoke that Apple has been screening with regards to hardware performance.
This law doesn't need to be passed in the US. US employers pretty much already have this right. In fact, the law in the United States seems to support business in depriving you of what would otherwise be your civil rights. Some employers already engage in search and seizure of actual persons and personal belongings. Many employers require that you submit body fluids for testing. Video surveillance of employees is rampant (and is often done covertly, just as much as video surveillance of customers is done-- in fact, monitoring one often makes it trivial to monitor the other). Employees seem to be able to deprive you of your ability to sue the company by requiring "mediation" for all disputes. They frequently deprive employees and contractors of their ability to build a career through dead-ending tactics like non-compete clasuses.
I fully recognize that civil rights are about government and not business, in fact that's what I'm complaining about (such a myopic view of rights in modern society), so please, no flames about the semantics!
Of course AOL is justified in being completely 100% yellow-bellied cowards about this. The decision about what information is illegal is certainly easier than trying to decide what information is simply objectionable. Of course, in the US, obscenity enforcement is quite variable, such that content in New York City might be seen as ho-hum, where that same content in small town Tennessee might get you jailed. Promoting Nazi politics is highly illegal in large parts of Europe, but is perfectly acceptable in Idaho. Personally, I'm more interested in the relationship of these volunteer editors to the for-profit AOL. Shouldn't they be getting paid for all this work?
What is needed if we are to have a truly human-built web directory, with categorization and true open-ness is a decentralized set of servers with a standard format (or at least a consistent underlying XML)-- either a script on the server which builds query-specific results, or serves a static file with ALL of that particular server's listings, such that a client or web page can be built to query those servers at the discretion of the user. The capability to provide smaller listings as a static file also makes it possible to store some listings on "free" servers and/or opens up the possibility for those users who have static web service as part of their ISP package, but do not have access to or skill in producing CGI pages.
By keeping each server or listing file topical (and perhaps organized using some existing external system like Dewey Decimal--which works just as well for web directories as for library materials, plus the decimal categorization allows the files to be very specific or very broad based on how many decimal places the catalog number is specified to), the client can keep a record of servers which have certain topics and query only those servers. This keeps query time down, allows for redundant category listings (i.e. if I don't like your information about drugs or Scientology I am free to make my own, and others are free to decide that one set of links is superior by excluding the other set from their server listing-- or to decide that they want to use both), it decentralizes control over content, it puts power in the hands of users (parents can make sure that offensive categories or servers are not available), but also allows anyone to provide content if they choose, it also decentralizes computing (which means that no one is dependent on some corporation to maintain the large server that does all the work).
I realize this proposal does not take into account the ability to do a comprehensive keyword search easily or quickly. Although it would certainly be possible to do quick keyword searches within categories, and it would be possible, but slow, to do broader keyword searches-- it just wouldn't be robust like google or altavista, but then it would be more likely to return useful results, too. Certainly this has some of the same sorts of problems that you have with Gnutella or Napster (possible bottlenecks, how to find directory servers and get them into your client, deliberately or accidentally malformed listings, etc etc). However, I think that with a little effort most of these problems can be overcome in ways that the existing services can't or don't work on preventing. The biggest problem is where to get and how to propagate a list of the listing servers. Just some thoughts... and I seem to recall reading about a project or two that are already working on this.
No matter how much insanely, um, Kooler, the wizard and the dragon are than the Insane Pervert Paperclip... I still experience a sort of post-traumatic stress reaction whenever I see them in some sort of helpful dialog box.
I am loath to say I almost agree with sips (a true first). Not voting is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of-- although I reserve the right to complain no matter what. Throwing away an opportunity to have my opinion registered in a forum in which it is the exact equal of all other citizens is too much opportunity to pass up because I am disillusioned, upset, or merely lazy-- at least go vote on the local issues and throw your vote away on some 3rd party candidate or frivolous write-in. But not voting? That's almost as silly as creating an electronic currency that is backed by 100% pure gold in storage!
Slashdot Mirror
Heh. I thought of this too. Especially since I frequently run into Slashdot postings/articles/whatever when doing searches on Google.
Are you people saying that my video card and these "frame rates" are what are probably causing me to lose chess matches online and to never quite get all 40 bonus bugs in the Galaga challenge rounds? Should I be looking for a new card, or will adjusting the resolution help?
Yeah, this car analogy is getting tired. *grin*
Don't most car manufacturers make you bring your car into their shop for regular maintenence and any warrantied repairs if you don't want to violate your EULA, er, lease or warranty?
Perhaps we should be comparing Linux to bicycles or motorcycles, which to my mind are what all real tinkerers (or maniacs-- not neccesarily exclusive) drive.
Some days I wonder what I'm smoking. Obviously RMS is opposed to artificial restrictions on sharing of information, like ridiculous copyright laws. Please forgive me.
Why do you people insist on equating RMS with the abolition of intellectual property? Instead you should equate the abolition of intellectual property with warez traders and "pirates", these people not only refuse to recognize the intellectual property rights of others, but go out of their way to infringe those rights. Mr. Stallman takes a hardline position that freedom is important. But he both relies on the notion of intellectual property to prevent the theft of that freedom and respects the rights of others to restrict their intellectual property. Perhaps he has stated that he has no sympathy for those who have their intellectual property infringed upon because they are predatory, but why would he go to extraordinary lengths to create freedom-minded solutions when creating unauthorized copies has always been a much easier approach?
Those are nice features for a database to have, but they are not necessary to join the database club. Can we save the semantic arguments for something important? I mean, if this isn't a database, what would you like us to call it?
Note: I do not use MySQL, I use postgreSQL. Of course, I frequently use Perl to interface with it, and that's not really a programming language, so what do I know, huh?
You are absolutely correct. However, from all indications in the press, this crack was open for three months-- which is plenty of time to quietly make changes that get into the backup sequence and into the master source tree (there can be many copies, but sooner or later source must be merged unless each MS developer is working on a completely forked piece of software). And if this crack exists, are there others? Also, this is a company well-known for easter eggs. Not that I didn't think the Excel flight simulator wasn't fun, but think about what the whole idea of easter egg means in terms of security policy. I'm not saying they can't clean their software up or that there is even a reason to believe it was corrupted (trojan code still has to compile and not cause bugs during testing in order to make it back out of the corporation). But how would we know? And do you really trust them to be as careful or as truthful about it as you'd like?
This may be a case of social engineering, but please don't gloss over the fact that it is Microsoft themselves who have repeatedly and loudly condemned Linux and who still, at this page on their site claim the Linux security model is weak. They spend a lot of time, money, and effort to put Linux in an extremely bad light. If they can't secure their own network using their own software, then I seriously question how their user base is to be expected to do the same. This points up how incredibly difficult it is to secure their software, yet they claim it is superior to other models out there.
Also, a quote from their spokesdroid, "We are confident that the integrity of Microsoft source code remains secure." (MSNBC article). I'm not so sure I believe them. Can they prove it? Is there any consulting firm in the world not on the Microsoft payroll who will be allowed to study their source to determine that it hasn't been trojaned by Russian subversives (or Steve Jobs or whoever cracked them)? I humbly suggest that from this day forward, there is no guarantee that any newly compiled software or patch hasn't been corrupted. While there's no need for gloating and "moronic childish chants", the fact remains that their source may be compromised and their security through obscurity model does not satisfy even the weakest security policies. This is not a problem we have with Linux or BSD-- which certainly have had holes in them, no denying it. But when you have someone telling you that you should trust them, and please pay mightily for our product, and, yes, you'll just have to trust us that it works the way we say it does (even though we can't seem to keep ourselves secure)-- oh and that Free software that you can obtain for a fraction of the cost and that you are able to review, modify, and share as you will? It sucks.
They do not deserve any leniency whatsoever. Their model is the one that is broken. It is based on trust. They can't buy that with any amount of marketing or legal shenanigans. Trust must be earned. And right now, they get none from me.
Exactly, considering that they stand to gain a lot more by selling these at $300-$350 a pop than by waiting around for some other console to be a price competitor. Especially given the warning signs in the US economy regarding sales, consumer debt, and the general health of major retailers, this is not a good time to have potential buyers having to wait-- they might decide they can't afford it.
I'm afraid I don't quite follow your math here. It must be Reaganomics or fuzzy or something. You have set the constant C to the value of the expression a-b=0. What you need to do in order to illustrate McReynolds point is set it like this: a = gross income b = tax (negative b indicates payment to individual) c = federal poverty line He proposes the following equation be applied to your tax computation each April: a - b = c This is an imperfect model since I'm sure he does not intend that for a > c for b to act as a complete level, but to be created such that the sum of all positive b (b`) and all negative b (b``) is equal. In fact, as long as c is scientifically and reasonably defined (i.e. poverty is actually poverty and not relative comfort), this encourages all business owners to pay a reasonable wage in the first place. Because then as b`` -> 0, so b` -> 0 (since b` + b`` = 0 and the function expressing b is something of the sort of y = xb^3 -- although to support other government functions this would actually be y = xb^3 + d, where d = money needed for programs). Business leaders could reduce their own income tax to zero simply by paying wages at or above the poverty level. What a revolutionary concept! People who work should not have to live in poverty!
I strongly support government funding of research and development (although I prefer it to happen in places like Universities than at defense contractor corporations). However, it is not clear to me at this point how much existing R&D is actually funded by government. What about drug companies? They claim they spend millions to develop new drugs-- and luckily for them the patent system (which I oppose) protects their monopoly on those things and allows them incredible opportunity for profit. How do you counter such an example of the positive ability of corporations being able to rely on intellectual property laws to further the advance of science?
No kidding, my first thought was "why do we need another D&D movie when we have E.T.?"
The net is full of dangerous people
:)
No. It isn't nearly full yet. There's plenty of more room for perverts, sickos, and chimps on the net. In fact, I go whole days on the web/IRC/AIM/freechess/Slashdot without running into any obviously maladapted folks. Adding Usenet to the mix can quickly change that, but even then, staying out of certainly binary-centric groups seems to work well. I'm guessing that the internet is no more replete with the bad people than the average corporate office, shopping mall, post office, university, major league sporting event, or sidewalk.
Finally, as far as your rhetorical sisters and daughters are concerned, I really think they have more to worry about from their friends and family than they do from anonymous strangers on the net. All of the feminist readings I've done and women I've discussed this with indicate that family members or date-rapists (and party-rapists) are far more to be feared than someone online.
You don't need to be extra careful WHO you are chatting with, you need to be careful WHAT you are chatting about and HOW MUCH you tell potentially threatening individuals that may help them injure you (and to be aware of data about you that may be available which helps them fill in the blanks). Finally, although I have to say I wouldn't want my rhetorical daughter to be sex-chatting some old guy, I certainly would think that if I felt she had made the decision to do so in full awareness (and was old enough to understand the conversation), that such behavior was harmless. However, if that guy showed up my rhetorical house seeking that rhetorical daughter, he would be greeted with some rhetorically heated lead fired from a rhetorical shotgun and dumped in a rhetorical body of water. Rhetorically speaking of course.
In fact, the PS2 having a builtin DVD is the only way there is going to be ANY DVD player in my house. This is a brilliant move on the part of Sony, who will have to erase the market for current release VHS before I switch out of that format for a format which does not allow recording, is region-encoded, will not seriously boost sound or video quality on my piss-poor TV (the only solution there is a new TV), won't play any of my large library of VHS tapes, and won't allow me to go find rare releases from the last 20 years and have a chance of being able to watch them. However, as soon as I buy a PS2 so that I can play some killer new game, I will also be able to play my old PSX games, and I'll have access to the DVD market as a bonus. Now, unless I'm a modern gaming fanatic, you tell me why would I buy any other console?
Absolutely a typo. This work does not inspire feeling, especially not as a scan on the internet. To be fair to it, I would still be interested to see it in a gallery setting since it is large. I always remember thinking that Rothko couldn't paint either, until I stood in front of one of his pieces.
As a person with a degree in fine art, who has actually managed to sell artwork, and is a regular attendee at galleries and museums, I have to agree with this sentiment, if not the exact wording.
The piece taken as a whole is incoherent at best. There are 1000 of these screen shots, but they are not arranged in any way that is actually pleasing. Nothing in the work speaks to the electronic scribble origination of the screen shots-- unless you want to state that the presentation is so incredibly sterile as to be unmistakably machine made. Some of the individual scribbles appear to be incredibly graceful, which makes the whole thing that much more tragic in it's complete lack of coherence. I find it appalling that any real meaning assigned to this piece will have to be scraped together post hoc, and that if the artist had any intentions in the creative process that they are largely unexpressed.
Finally, as I somewhat stated already, the part of this piece that comes from having been executed in part on a Palm is irrelevant. This same effect could have been achieved by painting a grid on a canvas and then scribbling in each of the spaces. I'd be a lot more impressed if the Palm had been used as a tool rather than as a kind artistic buzzword to obtain legitimacy for what is otherwise an empty art object. For instance, why not use Tealpaint to capture quick sketches of places/things/etc that wouldn't be practical to take a traditional analog drawing/painting tool too. Because the Palm is symbiotic with a PC, this could lead to a remote reworking of the sketches. But this work completely overlooks the Palm's dependence on a second system.
Finally, I don't think art can't simply be beautiful, elegant, or even ugly without making a point of some sort, but this is utterly NULL. It says nothing. It does appear to inspire feeling. It won't even match the carpet in a corporate lobby.
The lawsuit's defendents are clearly stated on this document. Both Mr. Goldstein and 2600 are listed. Either way, I doubt Mr. Goldstein would be afforded the typical protection of the State given to white collar criminals by the legal shenanigans surrounding business incorporation. Protection of corporate directors and principals from any real responsibility for crimes committed by the entities they supposedly control is typically reserved for large companies who have through decades of marketing efforts convinced the citizenry that to attack their company is to attack the American Way. This is not the case here as 2600 is a solid dissident voice and has already been ascribed outlaw tendencies by the Judicial system far beyond those merited by this single act of disobedience.
Actually, this is likely. Once I was speaking with an IRS on the telephone and part of the verification process included a short discussion of my birthdate, which was entered incorrectly in their file. The agent said that they get this information from the SSA and told me I should call them to discuss the matter more fully. The beauty of it was that my birthdate had been accidentally changed during a routine update (name change) of my SSA file-- then the SSA gave me a complete run-around in order to have it changed back to the obviously correct and former value, but that's a whole other story.
I could run Connectix Virtual PC with Red Hat I suppose. But that would not preclude me from polluting one of my actual x86 machines with this foulness.
This is sick and wrong. Very much so. Why not just post links to goatse.cx and call that an article? I feel dirty dual booting my Mac, I can't imagine how I'd feel actually running MS software inside a Linux GUI.
For all of it's bluntness this is one of the most effective summaries that I've seen of this entire discussion about the differences in chip speeds and when it is and isn't important or significant. It certainly underscores some of the very real reasons why Apple machines might be a rational purchase, while simultaneously pointing out some of the smoke that Apple has been screening with regards to hardware performance.
This law doesn't need to be passed in the US. US employers pretty much already have this right. In fact, the law in the United States seems to support business in depriving you of what would otherwise be your civil rights. Some employers already engage in search and seizure of actual persons and personal belongings. Many employers require that you submit body fluids for testing. Video surveillance of employees is rampant (and is often done covertly, just as much as video surveillance of customers is done-- in fact, monitoring one often makes it trivial to monitor the other). Employees seem to be able to deprive you of your ability to sue the company by requiring "mediation" for all disputes. They frequently deprive employees and contractors of their ability to build a career through dead-ending tactics like non-compete clasuses.
I fully recognize that civil rights are about government and not business, in fact that's what I'm complaining about (such a myopic view of rights in modern society), so please, no flames about the semantics!
Of course AOL is justified in being completely 100% yellow-bellied cowards about this. The decision about what information is illegal is certainly easier than trying to decide what information is simply objectionable. Of course, in the US, obscenity enforcement is quite variable, such that content in New York City might be seen as ho-hum, where that same content in small town Tennessee might get you jailed. Promoting Nazi politics is highly illegal in large parts of Europe, but is perfectly acceptable in Idaho. Personally, I'm more interested in the relationship of these volunteer editors to the for-profit AOL. Shouldn't they be getting paid for all this work?
What is needed if we are to have a truly human-built web directory, with categorization and true open-ness is a decentralized set of servers with a standard format (or at least a consistent underlying XML)-- either a script on the server which builds query-specific results, or serves a static file with ALL of that particular server's listings, such that a client or web page can be built to query those servers at the discretion of the user. The capability to provide smaller listings as a static file also makes it possible to store some listings on "free" servers and/or opens up the possibility for those users who have static web service as part of their ISP package, but do not have access to or skill in producing CGI pages.
By keeping each server or listing file topical (and perhaps organized using some existing external system like Dewey Decimal--which works just as well for web directories as for library materials, plus the decimal categorization allows the files to be very specific or very broad based on how many decimal places the catalog number is specified to), the client can keep a record of servers which have certain topics and query only those servers. This keeps query time down, allows for redundant category listings (i.e. if I don't like your information about drugs or Scientology I am free to make my own, and others are free to decide that one set of links is superior by excluding the other set from their server listing-- or to decide that they want to use both), it decentralizes control over content, it puts power in the hands of users (parents can make sure that offensive categories or servers are not available), but also allows anyone to provide content if they choose, it also decentralizes computing (which means that no one is dependent on some corporation to maintain the large server that does all the work).
I realize this proposal does not take into account the ability to do a comprehensive keyword search easily or quickly. Although it would certainly be possible to do quick keyword searches within categories, and it would be possible, but slow, to do broader keyword searches-- it just wouldn't be robust like google or altavista, but then it would be more likely to return useful results, too. Certainly this has some of the same sorts of problems that you have with Gnutella or Napster (possible bottlenecks, how to find directory servers and get them into your client, deliberately or accidentally malformed listings, etc etc). However, I think that with a little effort most of these problems can be overcome in ways that the existing services can't or don't work on preventing. The biggest problem is where to get and how to propagate a list of the listing servers. Just some thoughts... and I seem to recall reading about a project or two that are already working on this.
No matter how much insanely, um, Kooler, the wizard and the dragon are than the Insane Pervert Paperclip... I still experience a sort of post-traumatic stress reaction whenever I see them in some sort of helpful dialog box.
I am loath to say I almost agree with sips (a true first). Not voting is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of-- although I reserve the right to complain no matter what. Throwing away an opportunity to have my opinion registered in a forum in which it is the exact equal of all other citizens is too much opportunity to pass up because I am disillusioned, upset, or merely lazy-- at least go vote on the local issues and throw your vote away on some 3rd party candidate or frivolous write-in. But not voting? That's almost as silly as creating an electronic currency that is backed by 100% pure gold in storage!