While she prolly wouldn't be able to get that, if she were, that would be a keeper!!
If she did that, then she could also post a Slashdot poll with some of those obvious things that aren't mentioned here that she planned to do to you later that evening...
I'm sure they could probably arrange with some vendor of software to have some extra donations made in food to their country... A little bit of PR, especially these days, can go a long way in politics. A loud $5 worth of contributions can help your cause more than $100 silently.. (assuming legal ethics here..)
Seriously.. we aughta set something up for them, with a jokingly entitled "per license" gift.. Just the gift keeps on giving...
While this is old news (Billg announced it a while back, but didn't say when he'd do it.. makes sense this month..) and as everyone has pointed out, 'bout time.., I have to really agree with you.
I've never seen a truly stable version of Netscape under any *nix. Sure, it works, and gets the job done, but the core dumps I get one every hour or so pile up. I'm still fairly green at most Linux things, but it seems to be getting worse from my standpoint.. I keep updating to new versions of RH hoping to see improvement, and there is some improvement, but the other bugs that are showing up are larger. Almost the same as MS problems.
Simple graphical stuff- games, such as GTali, and usertools such as xwin settings/control center,dump on many systems, for no apparent reason. Text based programs such as TCD are more stable, but they still suffer the same syndromes- run for a while, then crash. Not near as often as anything X, but I'm starting to see MS like symptoms- small, but stable going to large, and unstable..
And then let's talk about all the security holes out there. While Linux certainly identifies them and gets fixes out there, the problem is it seems with each version the number of patches/fixes needed are getting more and more. Bind, wuFTP anyone? They aren't the worst culprits, but are prolly some of the better known ones..
Take a little time to fix up the code, though, and I bet you'll notice something that I have- where the code's gotten more stable, I've also seen an increase in user-friendliness. Something I think most of us can agree is needed for better acceptance. Where I've seen slips in program stability/security/quality, it also seems to be reflected in friendliness..
Also, it would be fun to do it just to mock Bill Gates.. Think about it- secure/fix up our code, and we come out of the month with relatively the same image as him. If done correctly, Linux could gain a lot of ground as we start saying "Wow, this is SOO much better!" where MS folks have to say "OK, they got this one.. now we just have to wait for this one, that one, those other few..."
Just my two cents. Cool idea, if we can get the volunteers out there, and some people to help bring newbies like me into the process..
.
Kinda funny.. I remember reading an article (online or paper, I don't remember) a few years back when the 3d genre had just hit hard, right after Doom and the rumors over doom II were starting to be proven/disproved..
I recall him saying something like "My mother thought I was on crack. After I bought my third Ferrari I asked her if it was still a bad career choice..." The "After.. I asked.." is a verbatim quote, the rest I can't promise..
I wonder if he wished he had invested that money now? Or if he'd already saved plenty... Hrmm..
I mean really- if the people are allowed a glimpse at what they're missing, they'll just scream "GIVE IT TO US!!" And that's precisely what the government doesn't want.
Also, if they reveal the list, everyone will start second-guessing their judgements. Anyone can tell you that any slight lack of confidence on behalf of the people is very bad for people in the government. With some people out there, give them a slight reason, and you'll see pipe bombs coming through your front window.
If only there were a way for the government to publish the list without getting themselves deeper in the alligator pit, they would likely do it. But until then, I fear they're SOL.
I may not like our government, but I am thankful for what I have here in the US...
I have no issue with paying a nominal fee to these...
I totally agree with your statements above.. As a musician, and a music lover, I support whatever artists I do happen to download illegally (and don't immediately delete). Typically this is Independent stuff folks, so don't flame me please.. I also appreciate that the RIAA should get SOME return on their investments. Not as much as they do, but still something.
You make the point of paying a fee for these rights. I even agree with that, and I'm not usually a person to agree with much of anything. Unfortunately, let's look at the RIAA, the current costs of albums, and growing trend of markets and laws. Do you REALLY see us only paying a nominal fee for such a privledge?
I don't. Frankly, I'm guessing that "nominal" to them would be the cost of the CD again. Jerks. Nice in theory, as much that is posted to/. is, but unfortunately not bloody likely in life.:(
A stupid question, but one that I've not really seen an answer to yet:
Many CS programming assignments are ones that you have multiple ways of doing, but some parts are going to be the same (IE if two people decide to use bubble sort for some unknown reason on a list, chances are they'll whoop out the old data structures book and rip from there- every coder does this to a degree. In general we call this concept "libraries.":))
How many people get flagged on such incidents where a small portion of code is EXTREMELY similar, but it's obvious the overall product is different? I know that's the intention of the threshold, but in English essays they look for paragraphs, sentences, and the overall thing.
Now, while many of such people may indeed be cheating, how many times do you find that it's a case of tutoring with no code exposure? I told a friend how to write some simple algorithm (string matching, IIRC) in his program, and the code ended up basically the same as mine with the exception of him using a slightly different conditional statement and variable names. The teacher asked us about this, we explained, and he said "Oh, OK." (The teacher also asked us individually to write something small which would prove we understood it, with the theory of he who couldn't do it was the true bastard, and the other a benevolent misstepping- another good way to catch cheaters, have them do a small, concept centric assignment as a test, and see if they're clueless)
I imagine this code tutoring happens often, but I also imagine it's not very often that it gets flagged. Just curious.
I think I'm more worried about the sale of the data that they've collected. I imagine they have several profiles that are linked to email addresses, etc. Heaven only knows what data is in those profiles. While mine is nothing shameful, I still would prefer no one has a profile for me...
I know it goes against Slashdot's concept, in essence, but what would be great here is a way to differ between unregistered ACs and logged-in people who posted AC. Perhaps call one Anonymous Coward and the other R Anon. Coward. Or something like that. Or possibly create an extra karma level (oohhh 6!!) where true ACs still post at 0, Registered ACs post at 1, and all other users post at 2/3...
Of course, I can easily see how any of this would be hellacious to hack into the code. Such a feature would allow us to to avoid the ACs, but I'm not sure how it would affect the logged in trolls...
The US wants the Ukraine to help stop piracy of software, music, etc. That certainly seems reasonable to me.
It also seems reasonable to me that the Ukraine deals with it within the scopes of their law. The Ukraine may or may not have done this, I have no clue of law outside of the US. So why are we getting so upset about this?
Gilmore mentions that coding thing that they want to use with optical media. Granted I don't understand it, but if it's really as bad as he says it is, the coding idea will never fly. People will turn further towards piracy, and EVENTUALLY the industries will give up on the idea. Of course, we said that about copy-protection, and the RIAA is getting more and more worked up on that.
So again, what's the real issue here? Is it the overreaching of the RIAA to protect their works (that I'm not seeing anything TOO unreasonable, just little bit of), or the Ukrainians flying the bird at the RIAA?
For me, even more interesting, but quietly mentioned, was the Accessibility Tool Kit (ATK). If you start pushing Linux out there to handicapped people, OLDER people, who need help hearing, seeing, what have you, they can help provide a major market push for linux. Obviously the needs of these people vary greatly, so customized solutions are a must.
In the same vein, it seems that KDE is for the people who want the solutions given to them, and Gnome is for the people who want to build their own customized solution (IE what they want.) That explains a little bit of the difference in the attitudes. Capt. Obvious does point out to me that the "build your own solution" approach is a general platform for Linux, KDE included, but I think Gnome really goes after that more.
I hope most of it will be functional, but like you, I fear that we're going to see a whole lot more of "build your own" than in the past from Gnome. It's not just you...
...unfortunately no one follows up. Really, how many Slashdot articles are posted here, and each time everyone says the same thing- "WRITE, fax, call you members, donate money, get other people involved, etc."?
And how many times do people follow through on this? We certainly have the power of numbers. If people would just practice what they preach, even in small amounts, we'd likely start to see things swing pretty well. The Skylarov rallies and press was good, and similar actions against RIAAssholes, but just one or two per year isn't good enough?
Seriously, how does the NRA do so well? They make sure people know they're still around at least once or twice per month. They flaunt it, without being holier-than-thou about it (most of the time.) And in numbers of greater than 50 at a time. If we can stop being anti-MS, and get to work, God only knows what we can do. The more public you are, the more people will start to see our side and work with us. And of course, the more MS will go after us (kinda like the NRA and anti-gun people..)
I'm not the best at practicing what I preach, but damnit, at least I do something. To those who already do too, great, keep it up. The rest of you who talk had best put some action behind those words, and the people who've stayed silent until now are certainly welcome to help out.
Confront all you want:
The issue is HOW you confront them.
If you go into it with an attitude of "I really want to show them," you will come off as a cocky jerk.
If you go into it with a genuine attitude of "I really want to do the best I can," you can survive.
The difference is the approach. One way, you come off as trying to prove someone wrong. The other way, with a few well chosen words such as "I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this will work better..." where you put the blame on yourself if you ARE wrong (and we all are on occasion), will come across better. And if you're right, people will remember YOU were right, instead of that SOMEONE WAS WRONG as they would with the other approach.
Another thing: If you are wrong, admit it, and be sure to fix it. If they put someone else on the "fix it" lead, be sure that you help them. Even if they only allow you to make coffee, effort to fix your own stuff will go a long way.
Why's Reagan considered one of the great prsidents by some people? Because he took responsibility, and didn't always try to shrug it off like every one since him has. Yes, he did blame congress on occasion, but he did put himself in the line of fire instead of finding scapegoats. I'm not stating that Reagan was great, but he did use some political tact that works with both Republicans and Democrats (and general public)..
Just my two cents. It works for me, but I'm not in quite as hostile of a situation as you are.
I certainly would not be doing this in an airport.
For that matter, shooting photographs of security stuff in general may be a bad idea. You could easily get arrested for such stuff, even if it is an invasion of privacy.
But, as always there's an alternate.. there's the middle finger.:)
Because of the DMCAA, et al, KaZaa is an accomplist to the crime.
As I said, I do not necissarily agree with those laws, nor do I think that everyone on these systems are criminal. Only God knows if the people who wrote KaZaa intended it to be a "cool indie MP3 program" or a "file sharing program." (Grief, that was a pathetic attempt to distinguish if the writers wanted to trade legal, or illegal mp3s that they many not see as illegal.)
Hope this clears the point up some. IMHO, KaZaa isn't ethically guilty of being an accomplist unless they intended to trade files they knew they shouldn't. Legally, however, they're guilty and executable if an 8 year old finds Lords of Acid or 2 Live Crew... or a lawyer finds it. And that's the world we live in.
It seems to me this isn't the brightest of moves. They're trying to use it as negotiating power, yet ticking off a judge is a really bad idea- keep in mind the judge (at least in the US) gets the final approval on any deal that's worked out during a case.
Also, what do they think this will gain them? While I don't like the DMCAA et al, I think we can all agree there are flat out illegal pirates out there amongst the legal users. Because of this, they're an accomplist to theft/copyright infringement/whatever you want to call it. Plus whatever other legal teeth those provide for sinking into the owners of KaZaa.
Sigh. If the music industry would just quit fighting, start providing MP3 format cds with a couple of extra songs/what have you, I bet they'd find that their piracy issues would go down more than they expect. I won't even try to argue financial benefit, since it's no one really seems to know (RIAA: OH, we lost MONEY! Stores: NO, you sold more! People: Hey, we're getting f*cked!)
The funny thing is, we've had those stickers on US machines for years, and it still happens, and they get bigger each time..
I think the ones that kill me are the Capt. Obvious signs. Like the "No Parking" sign in St. Louis on an interstate stretch which has no shoulder to park on. Half a shoulder at best, even my Merc Tracer couldn't fit on it. You know full well each of these warnings are placed because someone did it! Yes, that means the battery acid too. Not to mention some of the more humorous ones mentioned in vehicular manuals (see McDonalds vs...)
That might be a poll- stupidest warning sign/sticker that is actually needed...
Now, just FYI to some people, the McDonald's case is slightly interesting in that they had not in the past labeled those cups as hot, mostly due to the fact they used them for some cooler beverages. Given McDonald's reputation around here for order correctness (Last time, 1 Big Mac was 3 cheeseburgers, 2 nine piece Nuggets, and a salad. I'm still trying to figure the math on this one.) you never know what you'd get. So God only knows if she was going to get coffee, or if the beverage was hot (say it with me folks: DUH), and also what other various factors may have played in here that weren't even mentioned in the case. Note that I make no statement on my opinion on the case (IANAL), but I think both sides were EXTREMELY dumb in the handling.
Blind people even vary in what they call it.. So call it what you like. One friend calls it a screen reader, the other calls it a braile display. One of them does have speech in it, tho..
I think the first time I really ever saw one of them was in Sneakers..:)
While I agree with you, and suspect there are some magical statistics tricks going on here that anyone could do with a 4 function calculator, I just wanted to point out to all the people questioning the number of handicapped that this includes our retired people, those in nursing homes (who qualify), and some people who you wouldn't consider handicapped, but by law are (Good intentions, bad laws, as always. Kinda like the DMCA... but that's another rant^H^H^H^H section in/.)
The only reason I mention this is that while in public we hardly ever see the handicapped, they're all around us. I grew up in a neighborhood where half the people had handicapped driver's plates. Most of those retirees got out just to go to the grocery store, and occasionally stepped to their porches. (BUT, I should mention they were great people!) Then we moved, and the neighbor's daughter had some disease similar to cerebral palsy. That girl never got out except on special occasions.
Not to mention if we include the mentally handicapped in there, the figure gets larger. If we include the true handicapped (lawyers, politicians, and rent-to-own salesmen), then overall we're probably pushing one out of two people.
Seriously, 1 out of 6 is a bit high. But I suspect the true number is higher than we're thinking.
Too bad he doesn't have a userid with a web page.. It'd be pretty funny to/. a Commodore (three people.) OK. Not that funny. But repeated/.ing for the next month or so at least.
It'd pretty darned cool to get a web server running on a Commodore too..
It should be noted, btw, that while they are much more free in what they can do, in general I've heard they still live under Islamic law/morals, and so many things that we take for granted are limited for them (on basis of Religion, some self dictated, some by the N. Alliance...)
Slashdot Mirror
While she prolly wouldn't be able to get that, if she were, that would be a keeper!!
If she did that, then she could also post a Slashdot poll with some of those obvious things that aren't mentioned here that she planned to do to you later that evening...
WITHOUT A COWBOY NEAL OPTION!!
.
That little british expirment where they all jumped at once for a minute, made an earth quake...
What would be the equivalent for a group this size? If they did it with their PDAs, would it produce an EMP??
OK.. so that was just stupid. Sorry..
I'm sure they could probably arrange with some vendor of software to have some extra donations made in food to their country... A little bit of PR, especially these days, can go a long way in politics. A loud $5 worth of contributions can help your cause more than $100 silently.. (assuming legal ethics here..)
Seriously.. we aughta set something up for them, with a jokingly entitled "per license" gift.. Just the gift keeps on giving...
While this is old news (Billg announced it a while back, but didn't say when he'd do it.. makes sense this month..) and as everyone has pointed out, 'bout time.., I have to really agree with you.
I've never seen a truly stable version of Netscape under any *nix. Sure, it works, and gets the job done, but the core dumps I get one every hour or so pile up. I'm still fairly green at most Linux things, but it seems to be getting worse from my standpoint.. I keep updating to new versions of RH hoping to see improvement, and there is some improvement, but the other bugs that are showing up are larger. Almost the same as MS problems.
Simple graphical stuff- games, such as GTali, and usertools such as xwin settings/control center,dump on many systems, for no apparent reason. Text based programs such as TCD are more stable, but they still suffer the same syndromes- run for a while, then crash. Not near as often as anything X, but I'm starting to see MS like symptoms- small, but stable going to large, and unstable..
And then let's talk about all the security holes out there. While Linux certainly identifies them and gets fixes out there, the problem is it seems with each version the number of patches/fixes needed are getting more and more. Bind, wuFTP anyone? They aren't the worst culprits, but are prolly some of the better known ones..
Take a little time to fix up the code, though, and I bet you'll notice something that I have- where the code's gotten more stable, I've also seen an increase in user-friendliness. Something I think most of us can agree is needed for better acceptance. Where I've seen slips in program stability/security/quality, it also seems to be reflected in friendliness..
Also, it would be fun to do it just to mock Bill Gates.. Think about it- secure/fix up our code, and we come out of the month with relatively the same image as him. If done correctly, Linux could gain a lot of ground as we start saying "Wow, this is SOO much better!" where MS folks have to say "OK, they got this one.. now we just have to wait for this one, that one, those other few..."
Just my two cents. Cool idea, if we can get the volunteers out there, and some people to help bring newbies like me into the process..
.
"Mirror Mirror on the wall,
who's the fair.."
**crack**
"Darn.. must have been unstable..."
Sorry.. had to.. You may flog me now..
Kinda funny.. I remember reading an article (online or paper, I don't remember) a few years back when the 3d genre had just hit hard, right after Doom and the rumors over doom II were starting to be proven/disproved..
I recall him saying something like "My mother thought I was on crack. After I bought my third Ferrari I asked her if it was still a bad career choice..." The "After.. I asked.." is a verbatim quote, the rest I can't promise..
I wonder if he wished he had invested that money now? Or if he'd already saved plenty... Hrmm..
.
I mean really- if the people are allowed a glimpse at what they're missing, they'll just scream "GIVE IT TO US!!" And that's precisely what the government doesn't want.
Also, if they reveal the list, everyone will start second-guessing their judgements. Anyone can tell you that any slight lack of confidence on behalf of the people is very bad for people in the government. With some people out there, give them a slight reason, and you'll see pipe bombs coming through your front window.
If only there were a way for the government to publish the list without getting themselves deeper in the alligator pit, they would likely do it. But until then, I fear they're SOL.
I may not like our government, but I am thankful for what I have here in the US...
.
I totally agree with your statements above.. As a musician, and a music lover, I support whatever artists I do happen to download illegally (and don't immediately delete). Typically this is Independent stuff folks, so don't flame me please.. I also appreciate that the RIAA should get SOME return on their investments. Not as much as they do, but still something.
You make the point of paying a fee for these rights. I even agree with that, and I'm not usually a person to agree with much of anything. Unfortunately, let's look at the RIAA, the current costs of albums, and growing trend of markets and laws. Do you REALLY see us only paying a nominal fee for such a privledge?
I don't. Frankly, I'm guessing that "nominal" to them would be the cost of the CD again. Jerks. Nice in theory, as much that is posted to /. is, but unfortunately not bloody likely in life. :(
.A stupid question, but one that I've not really seen an answer to yet:
:))
Many CS programming assignments are ones that you have multiple ways of doing, but some parts are going to be the same (IE if two people decide to use bubble sort for some unknown reason on a list, chances are they'll whoop out the old data structures book and rip from there- every coder does this to a degree. In general we call this concept "libraries."
How many people get flagged on such incidents where a small portion of code is EXTREMELY similar, but it's obvious the overall product is different? I know that's the intention of the threshold, but in English essays they look for paragraphs, sentences, and the overall thing.
Now, while many of such people may indeed be cheating, how many times do you find that it's a case of tutoring with no code exposure? I told a friend how to write some simple algorithm (string matching, IIRC) in his program, and the code ended up basically the same as mine with the exception of him using a slightly different conditional statement and variable names. The teacher asked us about this, we explained, and he said "Oh, OK." (The teacher also asked us individually to write something small which would prove we understood it, with the theory of he who couldn't do it was the true bastard, and the other a benevolent misstepping- another good way to catch cheaters, have them do a small, concept centric assignment as a test, and see if they're clueless)
I imagine this code tutoring happens often, but I also imagine it's not very often that it gets flagged. Just curious.
.
I think I'm more worried about the sale of the data that they've collected. I imagine they have several profiles that are linked to email addresses, etc. Heaven only knows what data is in those profiles. While mine is nothing shameful, I still would prefer no one has a profile for me...
.
I know it goes against Slashdot's concept, in essence, but what would be great here is a way to differ between unregistered ACs and logged-in people who posted AC. Perhaps call one Anonymous Coward and the other R Anon. Coward. Or something like that. Or possibly create an extra karma level (oohhh 6!!) where true ACs still post at 0, Registered ACs post at 1, and all other users post at 2/3...
Of course, I can easily see how any of this would be hellacious to hack into the code. Such a feature would allow us to to avoid the ACs, but I'm not sure how it would affect the logged in trolls...
Just my 2...
Itchy's sex fantasy was DIAHAN CARROL??
That's almost as bad as those damn SciFi channel popups! **twitch twitch**
AIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!
.
For whatever reason, your statement just reminded me of good ol' Monty Python...
"I'm not dead yet."
"I'll get better."
(mumble mumble) *THUMP*
Let us not have this happen to us.
The US wants the Ukraine to help stop piracy of software, music, etc. That certainly seems reasonable to me.
It also seems reasonable to me that the Ukraine deals with it within the scopes of their law. The Ukraine may or may not have done this, I have no clue of law outside of the US. So why are we getting so upset about this?
Gilmore mentions that coding thing that they want to use with optical media. Granted I don't understand it, but if it's really as bad as he says it is, the coding idea will never fly. People will turn further towards piracy, and EVENTUALLY the industries will give up on the idea. Of course, we said that about copy-protection, and the RIAA is getting more and more worked up on that.
So again, what's the real issue here? Is it the overreaching of the RIAA to protect their works (that I'm not seeing anything TOO unreasonable, just little bit of), or the Ukrainians flying the bird at the RIAA?
KDE makes big strides, I'll grant you.
For me, even more interesting, but quietly mentioned, was the Accessibility Tool Kit (ATK). If you start pushing Linux out there to handicapped people, OLDER people, who need help hearing, seeing, what have you, they can help provide a major market push for linux. Obviously the needs of these people vary greatly, so customized solutions are a must.
In the same vein, it seems that KDE is for the people who want the solutions given to them, and Gnome is for the people who want to build their own customized solution (IE what they want.) That explains a little bit of the difference in the attitudes. Capt. Obvious does point out to me that the "build your own solution" approach is a general platform for Linux, KDE included, but I think Gnome really goes after that more.
I hope most of it will be functional, but like you, I fear that we're going to see a whole lot more of "build your own" than in the past from Gnome. It's not just you...
...unfortunately no one follows up. Really, how many Slashdot articles are posted here, and each time everyone says the same thing- "WRITE, fax, call you members, donate money, get other people involved, etc."?
And how many times do people follow through on this? We certainly have the power of numbers. If people would just practice what they preach, even in small amounts, we'd likely start to see things swing pretty well. The Skylarov rallies and press was good, and similar actions against RIAAssholes, but just one or two per year isn't good enough?
Seriously, how does the NRA do so well? They make sure people know they're still around at least once or twice per month. They flaunt it, without being holier-than-thou about it (most of the time.) And in numbers of greater than 50 at a time. If we can stop being anti-MS, and get to work, God only knows what we can do. The more public you are, the more people will start to see our side and work with us. And of course, the more MS will go after us (kinda like the NRA and anti-gun people..)
I'm not the best at practicing what I preach, but damnit, at least I do something. To those who already do too, great, keep it up. The rest of you who talk had best put some action behind those words, and the people who've stayed silent until now are certainly welcome to help out.
Confront all you want:
The issue is HOW you confront them.
If you go into it with an attitude of "I really want to show them," you will come off as a cocky jerk.
If you go into it with a genuine attitude of "I really want to do the best I can," you can survive.
The difference is the approach. One way, you come off as trying to prove someone wrong. The other way, with a few well chosen words such as "I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this will work better..." where you put the blame on yourself if you ARE wrong (and we all are on occasion), will come across better. And if you're right, people will remember YOU were right, instead of that SOMEONE WAS WRONG as they would with the other approach.
Another thing: If you are wrong, admit it, and be sure to fix it. If they put someone else on the "fix it" lead, be sure that you help them. Even if they only allow you to make coffee, effort to fix your own stuff will go a long way.
Why's Reagan considered one of the great prsidents by some people? Because he took responsibility, and didn't always try to shrug it off like every one since him has. Yes, he did blame congress on occasion, but he did put himself in the line of fire instead of finding scapegoats. I'm not stating that Reagan was great, but he did use some political tact that works with both Republicans and Democrats (and general public)..
Just my two cents. It works for me, but I'm not in quite as hostile of a situation as you are.
I certainly would not be doing this in an airport.
:)
For that matter, shooting photographs of security stuff in general may be a bad idea. You could easily get arrested for such stuff, even if it is an invasion of privacy.
But, as always there's an alternate.. there's the middle finger.
.
To correct my vague statement:
Because of the DMCAA, et al, KaZaa is an accomplist to the crime.
As I said, I do not necissarily agree with those laws, nor do I think that everyone on these systems are criminal. Only God knows if the people who wrote KaZaa intended it to be a "cool indie MP3 program" or a "file sharing program." (Grief, that was a pathetic attempt to distinguish if the writers wanted to trade legal, or illegal mp3s that they many not see as illegal.)
Hope this clears the point up some. IMHO, KaZaa isn't ethically guilty of being an accomplist unless they intended to trade files they knew they shouldn't. Legally, however, they're guilty and executable if an 8 year old finds Lords of Acid or 2 Live Crew... or a lawyer finds it. And that's the world we live in.
.
It seems to me this isn't the brightest of moves. They're trying to use it as negotiating power, yet ticking off a judge is a really bad idea- keep in mind the judge (at least in the US) gets the final approval on any deal that's worked out during a case.
Also, what do they think this will gain them? While I don't like the DMCAA et al, I think we can all agree there are flat out illegal pirates out there amongst the legal users. Because of this, they're an accomplist to theft/copyright infringement/whatever you want to call it. Plus whatever other legal teeth those provide for sinking into the owners of KaZaa.
Sigh. If the music industry would just quit fighting, start providing MP3 format cds with a couple of extra songs/what have you, I bet they'd find that their piracy issues would go down more than they expect. I won't even try to argue financial benefit, since it's no one really seems to know (RIAA: OH, we lost MONEY! Stores: NO, you sold more! People: Hey, we're getting f*cked!)
If you've been back by your high school recently, you'll notice that most students (not all) are quite against what they're being taught.
Obey.Kid: I'm not your dog! Piss off.
Work.
Kid: Not bloody likely.
Consume.
Kid: Oh, we're outta Wild Turkey again...
Breed.
Kid: FINALLY!! Something I could get used to!
*sigh* I hope those kids grow up better than I think they will.
The funny thing is, we've had those stickers on US machines for years, and it still happens, and they get bigger each time..
I think the ones that kill me are the Capt. Obvious signs. Like the "No Parking" sign in St. Louis on an interstate stretch which has no shoulder to park on. Half a shoulder at best, even my Merc Tracer couldn't fit on it. You know full well each of these warnings are placed because someone did it! Yes, that means the battery acid too. Not to mention some of the more humorous ones mentioned in vehicular manuals (see McDonalds vs...)
That might be a poll- stupidest warning sign/sticker that is actually needed...
Now, just FYI to some people, the McDonald's case is slightly interesting in that they had not in the past labeled those cups as hot, mostly due to the fact they used them for some cooler beverages. Given McDonald's reputation around here for order correctness (Last time, 1 Big Mac was 3 cheeseburgers, 2 nine piece Nuggets, and a salad. I'm still trying to figure the math on this one.) you never know what you'd get. So God only knows if she was going to get coffee, or if the beverage was hot (say it with me folks: DUH), and also what other various factors may have played in here that weren't even mentioned in the case. Note that I make no statement on my opinion on the case (IANAL), but I think both sides were EXTREMELY dumb in the handling.
Blind people even vary in what they call it.. So call it what you like. One friend calls it a screen reader, the other calls it a braile display. One of them does have speech in it, tho..
:)
I think the first time I really ever saw one of them was in Sneakers..
While I agree with you, and suspect there are some magical statistics tricks going on here that anyone could do with a 4 function calculator, I just wanted to point out to all the people questioning the number of handicapped that this includes our retired people, those in nursing homes (who qualify), and some people who you wouldn't consider handicapped, but by law are (Good intentions, bad laws, as always. Kinda like the DMCA... but that's another rant^H^H^H^H section in /.)
The only reason I mention this is that while in public we hardly ever see the handicapped, they're all around us. I grew up in a neighborhood where half the people had handicapped driver's plates. Most of those retirees got out just to go to the grocery store, and occasionally stepped to their porches. (BUT, I should mention they were great people!) Then we moved, and the neighbor's daughter had some disease similar to cerebral palsy. That girl never got out except on special occasions.
Not to mention if we include the mentally handicapped in there, the figure gets larger. If we include the true handicapped (lawyers, politicians, and rent-to-own salesmen), then overall we're probably pushing one out of two people.
Seriously, 1 out of 6 is a bit high. But I suspect the true number is higher than we're thinking.
Too bad he doesn't have a userid with a web page.. It'd be pretty funny to /. a Commodore (three people.) OK. Not that funny. But repeated /.ing for the next month or so at least.
It'd pretty darned cool to get a web server running on a Commodore too..
It should be noted, btw, that while they are much more free in what they can do, in general I've heard they still live under Islamic law/morals, and so many things that we take for granted are limited for them (on basis of Religion, some self dictated, some by the N. Alliance...)