Copyright is a Constitutionally-protected power of government.
No, copyright is a Constitutionally-protected power of the people, and by extension, corporations. The government can enforce a person's or corporation's copyright, and change the term of copyright, but that is about it. In fact, works made under commission of the government is actually in the public domain.
TorrentSpy is like the gun, or the gun manufacturer.
No. Guns are controlled by the person using the gun. TorrentSpy is controlled by a third party, namely the admins. No. Gun manufacturers do not have control of the gun after it is sold. TorrentSpy is controlled by the admins.
Why the square? Why not the cube? Or to the power 2.5? Or 2.1? Or 1.937591537?
Please go back to school and learn about the inverse-square and how it applies to physical laws in three dimensions. Here is something to think about "If you have a 2'x2' square of paper and it is 2' away and you move it to 4'(twice the distance), why does the paper look 1/4th the size and what is the apparent change in the surface area of the square?
Why would the universe choose a round whole number for its law of gravity? That's just way too weird.
The universe does not choose anything. The universe is an inanimate object. We choose the numbers.
For that matter, why would a human construct (the mathematics of inverse square proportion) even apply to anything in the universe?
Because, humans do the measuring. Take the formula for gravitational force between two objects, which is
Gravity is a function of mass. There are two masses, a and b, which attract each other and who are separated by distance r. Mass a attracts b and that attraction decreases with distance, which is r. Mass b attracts mass a and that attraction decreases with the distance which is r. You end up with two attractive forces (Fab and Fba). The equation for each looks like
Fa=Mb/r
To get the total force you multiple the two equations
Ft=Ma*Mb/r*r
and then multiple them times the gravitational constant, which is by no means round.
This would be inaccurate even if it weren't hoax. The student would be getting detention for not following the teachers directions. The fact that the directions were "Do not use firefox." is irrelevant.
Look, dumb-ass, any product can have a recall because of contamination. Toys, hamburger, even spinach.
The anti-vaccination idiots claim that vaccinations cause autism and make children more susceptible to the diseases. There is exactly zero proof of either.
The Declaration of Independence is not a document of the United States of America because the United States of America did not come into existence until September 17, 1787 when the Constitution was signed. And, if you really want to get technical about it, The United States didn't officially come into being until June 21, 1788 when the ninth state ratified the Constitution.
Before that, the States operated under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, adopted November 15, 1777 and ratified on March 1, 1781.
Now the, STFU and go back and study American History, dumb-ass.
The country where the murder was committed (America) was founded on certain inalienable rights [wikipedia.org], of which privacy is not included. The rights that cannot be denied are (1) Life, (2) Liberty, and (3) Pursuit of Happiness.
Um, no. The Declaration of Independence is not a document upon which the United States is founded. The document upon which the United States is found is the Constitution of the United States of America, and to a much lesser extent the Articles of Confederation that preceded the Constitution. Please show me where in the Constitution there is any guarantee of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".
The first two "rights" you list are, and have been, routinely denied in the case of criminal conviction. The third has also often denied through various means.
Yeah, I can, and it will include the reason these databases are un-American.
When one has done one's time, one has supposedly paid one's debt to society and are free to go about rebuilding one's life. One did something wrong, and one has been punished. That is supposed to be the end of it. These registration laws go against that. Once one is free, one is supposed to be completely free and not followed by one's past deeds in this manner.
You speak of public safety, but what about the rights of the individual? Shall one never be able to have a normal life if one made a bad decision in one's youth? What about someone who is rehabilitated? Shall they be haunted by their previous action forever? If we make everyone's bad acts publicly available so those acts may follow one around for the rest of one's life, why let anyone out of prison at all?
And where shall it end? Shall we outlaw swimming pools as more children die from swimming pools than guns? Shall we outlaw drinking because of drunk driving is a threat to public safety? Shall we outlaw cars because car wrecks are a threat to public safety? What about cigarettes and second hand smoke? Salty, high fat, high cholesterol foods are a threat to pubic health and therefore public safety. So is prostitution, lap dancing, and communion at church. A public gathering can spread disease or lead to rights, better ban them as well. What about people with mental problems? They can rob and kill and often become homeless so we should either commit them or force them to take their medications for public safety.
Here is an interesting idea: People who commit any crime are a danger to public safety, so we should tattoo on their foreheads what they habitually do so they can be easily identified by others. After all, public safety is more important than the "privacy" of criminals, right?
Any oppressive act can be justified if one frames it in terms of "public safety".
"Desktop Linux has a recent commentary on the inevitable growth of Linux on the cheaper end of the desktop market
So, a web site dedicated to Linux says that Linux is going to take over a market segment. Big surprise. Expecting anything different would be like expecting Microsoft to say Linux is the best option for a market segment.
This is not news. It is not even opinion. It is propaganda.
I have to disagree with you for the simple fact that if they go to college, they will have a leg up on learning the current version if they have used an older version.
What about when they go to college and have to then learn Photoshop because that is required for their courses?
What about when they go to enter the workforce and are asked "Do you have Photoshop experience?" Who will get the jobs, those with Photoshop experience or those with GIMP experience?
From the bill, directly after the "ban" in question:
NASA has too much on its plate already, and the President is welcome to include adequate funding for the Human Mars Initiative in a budget amendment or subsequent year funding requests.
In other words, it is not a complete ban, but rather a ban on using the funding provided by this bill. Future bills and even supplemental funding bills can include funding for the Human Mars Initiative.
Ah. It is simple. Right tool for the right job. I use Linux as a server, not a desktop. For desktop use, I use Windows and may move to a Mac soon.
For a lot of geeks, Linux works great as a desktop because they are happy to put the time and effort into it. They turn a blind eye to the problems with it because they actually enjoy dealing with the challenges.
Linux is a good server platform for many purposes. But, for most people, Linux is a crappy desktop. It requires effort and knowledge. More effort and knowledge that most people are willing to put forth.
Mac OSX and Windows are both much better than Linux for most people. I used Linux as my primary OS for a long time, but I was always frustrated by the idiosyncrasies and inadequacies. I have worked as a Unix Admin and a Windows Admin. I have experience and knowledge and ability. I am back to using Windows and am looking at Macs because of the deficiencies of Linux as a desktop.
It is not a rant. It is the truth. The information does not become a rant just because you don't like the message. The reason it is "well thought-out" is because it comes from experience and realism, not opinion and ideology.
I use Linux because I can do some things better on it. Linux makes a good server platform and I use it on my home server. It is the proper tool for the job.
Fanboys don't like hearing that their favorite whatever is not the perfect tool for every job. To them, everything is a nail. The fact that they are not the average user or that the average user does not want to spend time tinkering with a system to get it to work is lost on them.
Just recently, I have been looking at Macs for a general use home computer. I view OSX as safer for the internet than Windows and it might be a nice change, even if I don't like the way it looks. But, I will still have to use WinXP at home because I need it for work, and I will still use Linux for my home server because it does what I need it to do for that.
These are the facts:
Linux is a much better server O/S than a desktop O/S.
Macs and OSX, while being more secure than Wintel PCs, costs more, has less software, and it can have any theme you want as long as it is the one Apple wants you to have.
Windows, while being a little annoying and less secure, does what 90% of people need well enough to keep them happy. It connects to the internet for IM, surfing, and email. It has lots of software: games, media editing, etc. It has the number one office suite in use. Pretty much every piece of hardware comes with a driver for it. It comes pre-installed on most computers. It has positional advantage.
All three have fundamental flaws. For Windows, it is security. For OSX, it is cost and cookie-cutter design. For Linux, it is the fact that it is based on a client/server design from the 1970s that works better for servers than desktops coupled with a ideology that not only says one can get something for nothing but actually insists on it.
I would love to see a completely new O/S that is designed for the year 2010 or 2015. An O/S that couples the network transparency and stability of Linux/XWindows with the security of OSX and Linux, the ease of use Windows and OSX, the multi-processor support of BeOS, and the software availability of Windows.
But, it will almost certainly NOT happen because of the ideology of the Linux crowd and the capital investment Apple and Microsoft have in their respective products.
See, here is where you are a lying asshole: Linux documentation sucks ass. You think Windows is bad? I have hunted for DAYS looking for documentation for some parts of Linux, only to find cryptic notes, or worse "This help section needs to be added". I can solve most problems with what is in the Help documents of Windows. Then there is the MS Knowledge base, MSDN, and finally calling MS for help.
You haven't needed the command line? I guess you have not had to add a module, work with wireless networking, configure iptables, fix a file system, etc.
Linux supports more hardware? Outdated legacy equipment and server-centric equipment maybe. I will believe that when I don't have to use NDIS wrapper to get a wireless card working.
You want to talk GUI? Two words: Transparent windows. Oh, and compbiz/beryl still run on top of X, which is a crappy windowing system that is a good 7 years behind the times. Eye candy doesn't make a good GUI. The biggest problem people have with Vista and Aero is that Aero is a resource hog, just like Beryl, and the user access controls.
You don't think the Linux user community is hostile? You need to dig your head out of your ass. I can't count the number of times I have seen simple questions in forums answered with "RTFM n00b!" and those are the polite ones. Of course, there are many more questions that go unanswered because the community is too busy stroking their own egos and jerking off over Beryl to answer.
Linux itself is server-centric. Almost all the development in the last 2 years has been to improve performance as a server. Every single "desktop distro" is a joke. Tell you what, load up a fresh copy of Ubuntu and then play a commercial DVD that has CSS. What was that? You can't without jumping through a bunch of hoops? Well, hook up your DV camcorder and do some video editing on an SMP system using ieee1394. ieee1394 support in Linux is barely beta and it is not supported on SMP systems? Hey, I know, use iTunes. What? Can't do that either? Well, I am sure you can play a bunch of decent commercial video games like WoW or Unreal. No? Gee, sounds like your desktop distro can't do much.
You don't have to worry that 99% of your software choices are crap on Linux? This is an outright lie. Just look at FreshMeat and SourceForge. Both are chock full of half finished FLOSS projects with little or no documentation. The biggest downfall of almost every FLOSS project is that once all the sexy code gets written and it is usable by the developers, the developers scatter and head out to new projects leaving a half developed mess. Hell, more than half the software for Linux is in perpetual beta and will never reach a "production" release.
You are just a fanboy, blind to pitfalls and failures of your favorite OS. And, the only reason it is your favorite OS is because you think you can get something for nothing by using it.
And, just to head you off at the pass. I use Linux. I have used Linux since the late 90s. I currently run OpenSuSE on my home server and dual boot it on my laptop and Work-From-Home Desktop. So, please, spare me your whining and accusations of being a Windows shill.
I hate to break it to you, but Joe Sixpack does not care about better technology. History has proven this time and again. The easy example: Beta was superior to VHS, but VHS won the market.
Joe Sixpack only cares that his technology works well enough. He does not care if browser A can render an image 20ms faster than browser B. He does not care if his drive can do 2 additional reads in a second. He only cares about what noticeably effects his user experience.
Firefox's memory usage will effect his user experience. OOo's slow opening time will effect his user experience. If viruses and worms didn't effect his user experience, Joe Sixpack really wouldn't care about them.
Think about this, most users do not get help for their computer until it becomes nearly unusable. They don't get help until their user experience is severely degraded.
The biggest complaint about Vista is slow response caused by Aero and the user account controls popping up every time one changes things. In short, Vista degrades the user experience for Joe Sixpack.
Linux is not a great alternative to Windows. It is barely acceptable. Poor documentation, still command line focus, hardware compatibility issues, outdated GUI, hostile user community, and server-centric makes for a crappy average home user experience. Oh, and lots of choice is not a good thing if 99% of what one can choose from is crap.
OSX is not a great alternative because Apple has limited one's options to whatever Apple wants one to have.
This is why we, the techs and the geeks, need an organization that can both educate and lobby Congress.
It was just a few years ago that someone asked "Who represents you, the geeks, to Congress?" He started an organization and it died because all the people who complain about things like this don't bother to provide support to groups that would help prevent this kind of thing.
If you haven't learned yet, you can't unring a bell. Once something becomes law (DMCA, Copyright extensions, PATRIOT Act, etc, H1B laws) it is damn near impossible to get rid of it.
Quit bitching about it and do something about it. Help create a group to educate and lobby Congress on our behalf.
. I set it up as RAID1, so it comes with its own reliability
Except if the electronics fails, in which chase your RAID does you no good at all. Or, if your geometry is split across a platter. Or, you have multiple head crashes. Or, if your partition table goes away.
Slashdot Mirror
No, copyright is a Constitutionally-protected power of the people, and by extension, corporations. The government can enforce a person's or corporation's copyright, and change the term of copyright, but that is about it. In fact, works made under commission of the government is actually in the public domain.
No. Guns are controlled by the person using the gun. TorrentSpy is controlled by a third party, namely the admins. No. Gun manufacturers do not have control of the gun after it is sold. TorrentSpy is controlled by the admins.
You seem to be quite ignorant.
Please go back to school and learn about the inverse-square and how it applies to physical laws in three dimensions. Here is something to think about "If you have a 2'x2' square of paper and it is 2' away and you move it to 4'(twice the distance), why does the paper look 1/4th the size and what is the apparent change in the surface area of the square?
The universe does not choose anything. The universe is an inanimate object. We choose the numbers.
Because, humans do the measuring. Take the formula for gravitational force between two objects, which is
Gravity is a function of mass. There are two masses, a and b, which attract each other and who are separated by distance r. Mass a attracts b and that attraction decreases with distance, which is r. Mass b attracts mass a and that attraction decreases with the distance which is r. You end up with two attractive forces (Fab and Fba). The equation for each looks likeTo get the total force you multiple the two equationsand then multiple them times the gravitational constant, which is by no means round.
This would be inaccurate even if it weren't hoax. The student would be getting detention for not following the teachers directions. The fact that the directions were "Do not use firefox." is irrelevant.
Look, dumb-ass, any product can have a recall because of contamination. Toys, hamburger, even spinach.
The anti-vaccination idiots claim that vaccinations cause autism and make children more susceptible to the diseases. There is exactly zero proof of either.
Come back with a real argument.
Apparently you are an idiot.
The Declaration of Independence is not a document of the United States of America because the United States of America did not come into existence until September 17, 1787 when the Constitution was signed. And, if you really want to get technical about it, The United States didn't officially come into being until June 21, 1788 when the ninth state ratified the Constitution.
Before that, the States operated under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, adopted November 15, 1777 and ratified on March 1, 1781.
Now the, STFU and go back and study American History, dumb-ass.
Um, no. The Declaration of Independence is not a document upon which the United States is founded. The document upon which the United States is found is the Constitution of the United States of America, and to a much lesser extent the Articles of Confederation that preceded the Constitution. Please show me where in the Constitution there is any guarantee of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".
The first two "rights" you list are, and have been, routinely denied in the case of criminal conviction. The third has also often denied through various means.
Your argument is false.
Shall we make every thing you have been convicted of easily available to the public, including your insurance companies?
Apparently, it is because the entry was wrong.
Yeah, I can, and it will include the reason these databases are un-American.
When one has done one's time, one has supposedly paid one's debt to society and are free to go about rebuilding one's life. One did something wrong, and one has been punished. That is supposed to be the end of it. These registration laws go against that. Once one is free, one is supposed to be completely free and not followed by one's past deeds in this manner.
You speak of public safety, but what about the rights of the individual? Shall one never be able to have a normal life if one made a bad decision in one's youth? What about someone who is rehabilitated? Shall they be haunted by their previous action forever? If we make everyone's bad acts publicly available so those acts may follow one around for the rest of one's life, why let anyone out of prison at all?
And where shall it end? Shall we outlaw swimming pools as more children die from swimming pools than guns? Shall we outlaw drinking because of drunk driving is a threat to public safety? Shall we outlaw cars because car wrecks are a threat to public safety? What about cigarettes and second hand smoke? Salty, high fat, high cholesterol foods are a threat to pubic health and therefore public safety. So is prostitution, lap dancing, and communion at church. A public gathering can spread disease or lead to rights, better ban them as well. What about people with mental problems? They can rob and kill and often become homeless so we should either commit them or force them to take their medications for public safety.
Here is an interesting idea: People who commit any crime are a danger to public safety, so we should tattoo on their foreheads what they habitually do so they can be easily identified by others. After all, public safety is more important than the "privacy" of criminals, right?
Any oppressive act can be justified if one frames it in terms of "public safety".
So, a web site dedicated to Linux says that Linux is going to take over a market segment. Big surprise. Expecting anything different would be like expecting Microsoft to say Linux is the best option for a market segment.
This is not news. It is not even opinion. It is propaganda.
Congratulations, you have just demonstrated the subject of the article.
I have to disagree with you for the simple fact that if they go to college, they will have a leg up on learning the current version if they have used an older version.
What about when they go to college and have to then learn Photoshop because that is required for their courses?
What about when they go to enter the workforce and are asked "Do you have Photoshop experience?" Who will get the jobs, those with Photoshop experience or those with GIMP experience?
Which will be the easier transition: Photoshop 7 to Photoshop CS3, or GIMP to Photoshop CS3?
If the answer is the old version of the commercial software, then you should teach the old version of the commercial software.
In other words, it is not a complete ban, but rather a ban on using the funding provided by this bill. Future bills and even supplemental funding bills can include funding for the Human Mars Initiative.
Ah. It is simple. Right tool for the right job. I use Linux as a server, not a desktop. For desktop use, I use Windows and may move to a Mac soon.
For a lot of geeks, Linux works great as a desktop because they are happy to put the time and effort into it. They turn a blind eye to the problems with it because they actually enjoy dealing with the challenges.
Linux is a good server platform for many purposes. But, for most people, Linux is a crappy desktop. It requires effort and knowledge. More effort and knowledge that most people are willing to put forth.
Mac OSX and Windows are both much better than Linux for most people. I used Linux as my primary OS for a long time, but I was always frustrated by the idiosyncrasies and inadequacies. I have worked as a Unix Admin and a Windows Admin. I have experience and knowledge and ability. I am back to using Windows and am looking at Macs because of the deficiencies of Linux as a desktop.
I use Linux because I can do some things better on it. Linux makes a good server platform and I use it on my home server. It is the proper tool for the job.
Fanboys don't like hearing that their favorite whatever is not the perfect tool for every job. To them, everything is a nail. The fact that they are not the average user or that the average user does not want to spend time tinkering with a system to get it to work is lost on them.
Just recently, I have been looking at Macs for a general use home computer. I view OSX as safer for the internet than Windows and it might be a nice change, even if I don't like the way it looks. But, I will still have to use WinXP at home because I need it for work, and I will still use Linux for my home server because it does what I need it to do for that.
These are the facts:
All three have fundamental flaws. For Windows, it is security. For OSX, it is cost and cookie-cutter design. For Linux, it is the fact that it is based on a client/server design from the 1970s that works better for servers than desktops coupled with a ideology that not only says one can get something for nothing but actually insists on it.
I would love to see a completely new O/S that is designed for the year 2010 or 2015. An O/S that couples the network transparency and stability of Linux/XWindows with the security of OSX and Linux, the ease of use Windows and OSX, the multi-processor support of BeOS, and the software availability of Windows.
But, it will almost certainly NOT happen because of the ideology of the Linux crowd and the capital investment Apple and Microsoft have in their respective products.
See, here is where you are a lying asshole:
Linux documentation sucks ass. You think Windows is bad? I have hunted for DAYS looking for documentation for some parts of Linux, only to find cryptic notes, or worse "This help section needs to be added". I can solve most problems with what is in the Help documents of Windows. Then there is the MS Knowledge base, MSDN, and finally calling MS for help.
You haven't needed the command line? I guess you have not had to add a module, work with wireless networking, configure iptables, fix a file system, etc.
Linux supports more hardware? Outdated legacy equipment and server-centric equipment maybe. I will believe that when I don't have to use NDIS wrapper to get a wireless card working.
You want to talk GUI? Two words: Transparent windows. Oh, and compbiz/beryl still run on top of X, which is a crappy windowing system that is a good 7 years behind the times. Eye candy doesn't make a good GUI. The biggest problem people have with Vista and Aero is that Aero is a resource hog, just like Beryl, and the user access controls.
You don't think the Linux user community is hostile? You need to dig your head out of your ass. I can't count the number of times I have seen simple questions in forums answered with "RTFM n00b!" and those are the polite ones. Of course, there are many more questions that go unanswered because the community is too busy stroking their own egos and jerking off over Beryl to answer.
Linux itself is server-centric. Almost all the development in the last 2 years has been to improve performance as a server. Every single "desktop distro" is a joke. Tell you what, load up a fresh copy of Ubuntu and then play a commercial DVD that has CSS. What was that? You can't without jumping through a bunch of hoops? Well, hook up your DV camcorder and do some video editing on an SMP system using ieee1394. ieee1394 support in Linux is barely beta and it is not supported on SMP systems? Hey, I know, use iTunes. What? Can't do that either? Well, I am sure you can play a bunch of decent commercial video games like WoW or Unreal. No? Gee, sounds like your desktop distro can't do much.
You don't have to worry that 99% of your software choices are crap on Linux? This is an outright lie. Just look at FreshMeat and SourceForge. Both are chock full of half finished FLOSS projects with little or no documentation. The biggest downfall of almost every FLOSS project is that once all the sexy code gets written and it is usable by the developers, the developers scatter and head out to new projects leaving a half developed mess. Hell, more than half the software for Linux is in perpetual beta and will never reach a "production" release.
You are just a fanboy, blind to pitfalls and failures of your favorite OS. And, the only reason it is your favorite OS is because you think you can get something for nothing by using it.
And, just to head you off at the pass. I use Linux. I have used Linux since the late 90s. I currently run OpenSuSE on my home server and dual boot it on my laptop and Work-From-Home Desktop. So, please, spare me your whining and accusations of being a Windows shill.
I hate to break it to you, but Joe Sixpack does not care about better technology. History has proven this time and again. The easy example: Beta was superior to VHS, but VHS won the market.
Joe Sixpack only cares that his technology works well enough. He does not care if browser A can render an image 20ms faster than browser B. He does not care if his drive can do 2 additional reads in a second. He only cares about what noticeably effects his user experience.
Firefox's memory usage will effect his user experience. OOo's slow opening time will effect his user experience. If viruses and worms didn't effect his user experience, Joe Sixpack really wouldn't care about them.
Think about this, most users do not get help for their computer until it becomes nearly unusable. They don't get help until their user experience is severely degraded.
The biggest complaint about Vista is slow response caused by Aero and the user account controls popping up every time one changes things. In short, Vista degrades the user experience for Joe Sixpack.
Linux is not a great alternative to Windows. It is barely acceptable. Poor documentation, still command line focus, hardware compatibility issues, outdated GUI, hostile user community, and server-centric makes for a crappy average home user experience. Oh, and lots of choice is not a good thing if 99% of what one can choose from is crap.
OSX is not a great alternative because Apple has limited one's options to whatever Apple wants one to have.
This is why we, the techs and the geeks, need an organization that can both educate and lobby Congress.
It was just a few years ago that someone asked "Who represents you, the geeks, to Congress?"
He started an organization and it died because all the people who complain about things like this don't bother to provide support to groups that would help prevent this kind of thing.
If you haven't learned yet, you can't unring a bell. Once something becomes law (DMCA, Copyright extensions, PATRIOT Act, etc, H1B laws) it is damn near impossible to get rid of it.
Quit bitching about it and do something about it. Help create a group to educate and lobby Congress on our behalf.
Except if the electronics fails, in which chase your RAID does you no good at all.
Or, if your geometry is split across a platter.
Or, you have multiple head crashes.
Or, if your partition table goes away.
If your statement was true, then Windows would not be the market leader, even with MS' predatory practices.
You are just an MS hater.
You agreed to the License Agreement.
Don't like it, stop playing. It is only a game.
Make your own. Plywood, laminated fiber board, a pillow, a jigsaw, staples or hot glue and you are in business.