how important the Founding Fathers concept of free speech is/was and how slippery a slope limiting that speech is. It is an essential element of personal freedom anywhere on the globe.
The slippery slope argument is a logical fallacy. The slippery slope creates arguments like "Violent video games create killers". We already have some "common sense" limits on free speech, (no yelling "fire" in a crowded room, hate speech etc...) so according to the slippery slope we'd already be living in some kind of facist totalitarian regime.
Why would you have to maintain dual websites? The changes necessary to make your site accessible to the blind are generally such simple things as using ALT tags for images and make your HTML valid. In fact, the ALT tag has been required (i.e. NOT optional) since at least HTML 4.01 [w3.org].
There's a huge difference between requiring a feature, and having the feature useable. What's the point of Alt tags if all they ever say is "Image", or some other equally useful default prefill value?
For the large part, even in western religions such as Christianity and Catholocism, this isn't true... the cardinal sin is "Lust", which is a difference. This is why most of the rest of the world doesn't care about boobies on statues of women, whereas in America we have to "protect the children" by hanging drapes over them. Hooray for the tyrrany of the soccer moms.
What happens do the DECSS case now? Is it still illegal, or would it become instantly legal when this passed until it went to court again?
Tough call... technically, it might be legal, although since licensed DVD decoders exist for all platforms (I thought I read somewhere there's even a licensed player for linux) As a matter of fact, I'm almost sure, since this bill seems to protect consumers ability to make copies for archiving/backup purposes, and to my knowledge none of the current software players handles that.
Why not have vacuum in the harddrives? Why air at all?? (or am I missing some fundamental physics here?;))
Yeah... you need the air in the HD case because it's used to generate the 'air cushion' that the disk head rides on (think hovercraft) and keeps the head from crashing into the plate. I don't think it's possible to develop a mechanical system that would keep the head from crashing into the disk...
When I first read that part of the article, I thought, "Great! Finally CD's are going to cost $5 like they ought to!" Of course, then I re-read it and saw that prices were going to drop that much, not drop to that much.
And remember, this is probably wholesale prices... who knows how much of this will make it down to the retail end of things.
, English is such a static thing. Why don't you go and read Canterbury Tales and shut up.
Actually, the Cantebury Tales is an excellent example of why enforcing grammatical and spelling rules (silly though they might be) and settling on *some* standard is better than none... because nobody wants today's information to be as difficult to decipher as Chaucer's are to today's people.
Re:Saw it Sunday. It lives up to expectations.
on
Review: Spirited Away
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· Score: 1
Hehe sweet... I saw it at that same showing, I went with my girlfriend who is interested in anime but not a real anime junkie like myself, and two friends of hers that are both movie and anime buffs... and everyone gave it a big thumbs up... first Uptown movie! and only drove 400 miles for it:)
Actually, I was pretty happy with my Dell case, until I was going to plunk in a new mobo... unfortunately, rather than using screws to mount the motherboard, they used little plastic clips. You can't unmount the motherboard without breaking the clips, and after that, securing the new motherboard is a pain in the ass. Other than that, the cases are pretty good, and fairly easy to work in.
I don't know about the states, but here in Australia, when demolition man was shown on TV, we didn't have Taco Bell..... So the soulless bastards replaced it with Pizza Hut!!!
You think that's bad? I was watching a broadcast of Demolition Man on one of the major networks here (I was bored out of my gourd and down with a sprained ankle) and they edited out all the Taco Bell references, presumably to stop them from getting free advertising via product placement! The entire joke was lost! A good reminder of why I stopped watching most TV.
Grim Fandango was a great game, but I can't stand the interface/engine, which they also decided to use for Monkey Island 4:-( IMO the Monkey Island series peaked artistically at Monkey Island 3, although 2 was one of the better games for plots and puzzles.
Actually, the rubber tree and the holding his breath for 10 minutes is are something of a running gag, I know the rubber tree played a key role in MI3, and holding his breath boast has been in every game:-)
Re:First they came for the Indians...
on
Shop Till It Drops
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· Score: 1
I often find the minimum wage lackeys on the other side of the cashier are slow and obnoxious.
Not half as obnoxious as the dumpy old hausfrau cutting a check for her dollar-and-change purchase.:-P
Meh... my last experience with the PAL/NTSC mess was in the early 90's, so that would be about right. Nice to see that they finally got that sorted, just in time for VHS's decline:-)
1. Scratch a section of your VHS tape away. Can you still watch the movie? Now gouge a section of your DVD. Same question. On a side note, funny that this talks about a Sony product, when Sony DVD players are some of the worst (in my opinion) at playing scratched disks.
Ok smart-ass, try this test: place a magnet on or near your VHS. Now place one on or near your DVD. Jump to the start of the DVD movie and watch it 100 times. Do the same with VHS. Media degrades, careful care of either medium will ensure longevity.
4. If I buy a VHS tape in non-USA country X, I can come home and play it for my friends. Oftentimes not so for DVD (again, unless you hacked the system, although recent Slashdot articles indicate this may shift).
Hate to break it to you, but VHS tapes aren't international either... try playing a US video on a UK VHS player, and see how far you get. (Hint: it doesn't work)
Bah, if you want real coffee, try greek coffee. Fairly fine ground, and they don't filter it in any way... just dump the grinds straight into the cup. Served in expresso-sized cups, very good for after a meal.
much like the roman catholic church of the middle ages
Actually, witchfinding wouldn't really be considered corruption per se... more on the fanatical side. The corruption in the Roman Catholic church had more to do with the selling of indulgences and "holy relics" than anything else.
Slashdot Mirror
how important the Founding Fathers concept of free speech is/was and how slippery a slope limiting that speech is. It is an essential element of personal freedom anywhere on the globe.
The slippery slope argument is a logical fallacy. The slippery slope creates arguments like "Violent video games create killers". We already have some "common sense" limits on free speech, (no yelling "fire" in a crowded room, hate speech etc...) so according to the slippery slope we'd already be living in some kind of facist totalitarian regime.
Why would you have to maintain dual websites? The changes necessary to make your site accessible to the blind are generally such simple things as using ALT tags for images and make your HTML valid. In fact, the ALT tag has been required (i.e. NOT optional) since at least HTML 4.01 [w3.org].
There's a huge difference between requiring a feature, and having the feature useable. What's the point of Alt tags if all they ever say is "Image", or some other equally useful default prefill value?
Sex is really the cardinal sin in religion.
For the large part, even in western religions such as Christianity and Catholocism, this isn't true... the cardinal sin is "Lust", which is a difference. This is why most of the rest of the world doesn't care about boobies on statues of women, whereas in America we have to "protect the children" by hanging drapes over them. Hooray for the tyrrany of the soccer moms.
What happens do the DECSS case now? Is it still illegal, or would it become instantly legal when this passed until it went to court again?
Tough call... technically, it might be legal, although since licensed DVD decoders exist for all platforms (I thought I read somewhere there's even a licensed player for linux) As a matter of fact, I'm almost sure, since this bill seems to protect consumers ability to make copies for archiving/backup purposes, and to my knowledge none of the current software players handles that.
Why not have vacuum in the harddrives? Why air at all?? (or am I missing some fundamental physics here? ;))
Yeah... you need the air in the HD case because it's used to generate the 'air cushion' that the disk head rides on (think hovercraft) and keeps the head from crashing into the plate. I don't think it's possible to develop a mechanical system that would keep the head from crashing into the disk...
When I first read that part of the article, I thought, "Great! Finally CD's are going to cost $5 like they ought to!" Of course, then I re-read it and saw that prices were going to drop that much, not drop to that much.
And remember, this is probably wholesale prices... who knows how much of this will make it down to the retail end of things.
For the most part, players have been cordial, and I really haven't seen that big of a problem with people abusing the technology.
This, too, shallpass.
So if you run towards something, you're actually going to be seeing into *THE FUTURE*, and if you run backwards, you can look into the past.
True... you just have to be running faster than c. =)
, English is such a static thing. Why don't you go and read Canterbury Tales and shut up.
Actually, the Cantebury Tales is an excellent example of why enforcing grammatical and spelling rules (silly though they might be) and settling on *some* standard is better than none... because nobody wants today's information to be as difficult to decipher as Chaucer's are to today's people.
Hehe sweet... I saw it at that same showing, I went with my girlfriend who is interested in anime but not a real anime junkie like myself, and two friends of hers that are both movie and anime buffs... and everyone gave it a big thumbs up... first Uptown movie! and only drove 400 miles for it :)
Wow... this is about the most insightful post I've seen on slashdot in a long time. Thanks. :-)
Actually, I was pretty happy with my Dell case, until I was going to plunk in a new mobo... unfortunately, rather than using screws to mount the motherboard, they used little plastic clips. You can't unmount the motherboard without breaking the clips, and after that, securing the new motherboard is a pain in the ass. Other than that, the cases are pretty good, and fairly easy to work in.
The 50 cal is basically the largest caliber pistol... for when you REALLY need to be an overcompensating macho dude. :-)
I don't know about the states, but here in Australia, when demolition man was shown on TV, we didn't have Taco Bell..... So the soulless bastards replaced it with Pizza Hut!!!
You think that's bad? I was watching a broadcast of Demolition Man on one of the major networks here (I was bored out of my gourd and down with a sprained ankle) and they edited out all the Taco Bell references, presumably to stop them from getting free advertising via product placement! The entire joke was lost! A good reminder of why I stopped watching most TV.
Can't beat q3 DM and can't beat UT other stuff.
But it's so perty!
A single Megaton of energy (a moderately large nuclear bomb)
I seem to remember that moderately large nuclear bombs are upwards of 10 megatons. The first nuclear bombs were around a megaton.
Grim Fandango was a great game, but I can't stand the interface/engine, which they also decided to use for Monkey Island 4 :-( IMO the Monkey Island series peaked artistically at Monkey Island 3, although 2 was one of the better games for plots and puzzles.
Actually, the rubber tree and the holding his breath for 10 minutes is are something of a running gag, I know the rubber tree played a key role in MI3, and holding his breath boast has been in every game :-)
I often find the minimum wage lackeys on the other side of the cashier are slow and obnoxious.
:-P
Not half as obnoxious as the dumpy old hausfrau cutting a check for her dollar-and-change purchase.
Meh... my last experience with the PAL/NTSC mess was in the early 90's, so that would be about right. Nice to see that they finally got that sorted, just in time for VHS's decline :-)
1. Scratch a section of your VHS tape away. Can you still watch the movie? Now gouge a section of your DVD. Same question. On a side note, funny that this talks about a Sony product, when Sony DVD players are some of the worst (in my opinion) at playing scratched disks.
Ok smart-ass, try this test: place a magnet on or near your VHS. Now place one on or near your DVD. Jump to the start of the DVD movie and watch it 100 times. Do the same with VHS. Media degrades, careful care of either medium will ensure longevity.
4. If I buy a VHS tape in non-USA country X, I can come home and play it for my friends. Oftentimes not so for DVD (again, unless you hacked the system, although recent Slashdot articles indicate this may shift).
Hate to break it to you, but VHS tapes aren't international either... try playing a US video on a UK VHS player, and see how far you get. (Hint: it doesn't work)
Bah, if you want real coffee, try greek coffee. Fairly fine ground, and they don't filter it in any way... just dump the grinds straight into the cup. Served in expresso-sized cups, very good for after a meal.
Edit->Prefs->Navigator->Tabbed Browsing: Middle/Control click opens new tab instead of window. Very nice.
much like the roman catholic church of the middle ages
Actually, witchfinding wouldn't really be considered corruption per se... more on the fanatical side. The corruption in the Roman Catholic church had more to do with the selling of indulgences and "holy relics" than anything else.
Now that's comedy! *sigh*