It's sad that this got modded down. It's actually a) accurate, b)on-topic, and c) not the mindless drivel the Bush administration is trying to anesthetize the nation into accepting as the true causes of terrorism. Great to see that the slashdot moderators are doing their part to limit debate and encourage the flawed version of the terrorist's agenda the government is feeding to us.
As the Internet community has tried to tell people for years, our current ideas of Intellectual Property are dead. Copyright, patents and other monopolizing influences on pure information have no reason to exist and the Internet has finally given us the means to destroy these useless ideas. I'm not against credit for one's work; the GPL and other such licenses can protect that if people are responsible in their use of open-sourced information. The difference is that in the Information Age, if you're going to come up with ideas for the good of society, you'll have to do it solely for that reason. Is that so wrong? Would it be wrong to teach people that to do the right thing and do things that are positive for society is it's own reward in the recognition one receives? Must we promise lordly lifestyles to those who create good things? Not really. Imagine this; a world where people develop cancer medications that can be distributed at low cost because they want to cure cancer, not because they want to make money. A world where scientists work together to solve problems, instead of working separately to make money. Let's think about that. The only problem is corporations (who give us more reasons not to trust them every day) want to protect the old system, because it grants them power. The thing they don't realize is that they've already lost. The old world is dying a slow and painful death; let's do the responsible thing and euthanize it.
The thing that bothers me most is that egregious violations of personal liberties are going on every day and now we trot out one line of Supreme Court caselaw to say it's all okay. Just because one justice once said "the constitution is not a suicide pact" does not make it okay to break the rules that our social fabric is supposed to be based on. The funniest thing is that fear of terrorism (which is the whole reason you attack a country that way) has led us to give up our liberties. We're fighting for "freedom" in Afghanistan, but losing it all at home. If, with the clues they had, the CIA and FBI couldn't figure this one out how are we supposed to expect that with new powers they'll be able to do anything else? They won't. It's not commie-pinko bs like others would suggest. This is just straight talk. Police agencies can't do their jobs with the considerable leeway with regards to the law they are currently granted. Expecting that throwing more (mostly unconstitutional) powers in their hands will somehow make them do their job better is ridiculous. Not only that, but attacking the people who hate us is not a good way to show we're a tolerant nation. It makes us look just as bad as they say we are. Osama bin Laden shouldn't have much trouble finding recruits in Afghanistan or anywhere. The Great Satan has shown once again that we suck just as bad as they've always thought we did. So whatever. I guess we'll let good old Bushie decide for us. If not, we're probably terrorists anyway.
DivX on dreamcast works quite well, requires no hardware modification and is generally of decent quality. Without re-encoding any of my DivX movies, I've been able to watch them on the TV and I've been happy with the results. My total expense? Nothing but a $50 Dreamcast, a CDR, and a few seconds of bandwith to download the software. A similar setup on the Xbox would require alot more money, and while it might make the quality a tiny bit better, I think it'd probably be an unnoticeable difference anyways. Instead of supporting M$, which everybody here seems to hate with a vigor bordering on insanity, why not support the OPENSOURCE developers who are making dreamcast software.
Just as an interesting thought; corporations are granted their charters for the "public good," right? What I wonder is who is doing the community more good, Napster (who have encouraged communication and sharing) or the RIAA (who encourage closemindness and destroy that feeling of community. As a society we need to stop abuses like this so we can takle control of our nation once more.
James
Actually it's kind of funny to see that well-thought out, generally well written discourse about the moderation done on this site in an sid dedicated to moderation was modded down. It really speaks pretty badly about what's really going on here. Even if what he says isn't true, it's on-topic and it's an opinion. If you believe it's wrong for him to post his opinion, state it clearly on the homepage. If you don't want comments made on the state of moderation, don't comment on it yourself. If you are too insecure to allow people to question the authority with which you make moderation decisions, then make it clear that that is the way this place is going to be run. If you want all that without people questioning it, then DON'T HAVE SLASHDOT ANYMORE. DO AWAY WITH IT. IF YOU WANT TO BE MAINSTREAM NEWS, WITH MAINSTREAM COMMENTS AND MAINSTREAM OPINIONS, WORK FOR MSNBC. Don't try to cater to the open-source community or any other community like it by discouraging this kind of post. It's not going to work, because these are people who just will not listen. Mod me down. I don't care. Just realize what your goals are and state them clearly. And before you say "here's one of their little trolling buddies defending trolling" realize what you're saying- "here's someone who disagrees with us. Let's make certain we can make it so very few people hear what he has to say." Who are you then? If you can answer that question and be happy with the answer, be happy cause that's what you're doing.
See the problem with the electoral college is that it makes this country seem pretty silly. It's an antiquated device that was questioned when it was first established. We've moved toward straight majority elections over the years; the senate is now popularly elected, and some states have revised the way they assign electors; however, it's not really enought. The US harps on fairness in other democracies, yet we can't even do it ourselves. Runoff elections would help; that way, Ralph Nader and other crazy third party candidates wouldn't rob the incoming president the chance for a strong mandate from the people. I think a straight majority should dictate the presidency; it's the fairest system we could devise, and any overhaul of our elections (especially after the circus in florida) would be a good thing. The point is that we really need to work on things; it's screwed up pretty bad. OK. Flame on...
Regardless of whether you agree with the person posting this, it shouldn't have been modded down. That's pretty messed up on the part of the moderators; it was posted by someone who has obviously done a little bit of research. I'm sorry you all support Ralph Nader, but why is this modded down? Solely on ideological differences, not on any real basis. If the moderators are going to mod down well thought out comments because of ideological differences, the whole point of comments is gone. So, please, mod this post up.
Just remember, when you're reaching towards geekdom, the most important thing to do is resist the intrusion of reality into your slashdot crazed mind. DO NOT READ OTHER SOURCES FOR NEWS! CNN and other news providers might distract you. Only get your news from slashdot. Don't read a newspaper. Don't ever leave the room your computer is in. If you have to, it better be to go to a job where you work on computers. Eating you say? I've read articles on how to cook on a car's motor; overclock your pc until you can cook food on the heatsink. Hell, you might be able to make a use of waste heat! Yes! And always, always, always look for ways to raise your SETI stats. Without that, you'll be horribly lost.
Learn how to say "Imagine a beowulf cluster of those..." as a response to ANYTHING. Talk smack about trolls even though every once in awhile they're funny. Finally, make sure you do everything possible to portray yourself as a kharma whore(C)(R)(TM). That's a start. The rest will come naturally (that is, pale skin, no social life, and no chance of ever getting laid).
Oh, and before anybody decides to take this seriously, remember this: I was deep enough into a/. comment to actually reply to this message. Obviously, I don't have a life either.
Open Source takes the ideas of individuals and combines them to the greater good. Linux is not a collaborative effort per se- The kernel is attributed to an individual (hmm... what was his name again...) and most software/kernel modules/kernel patches are originally the product of one person. It just happens that the open source model allows for collaborative sharing for better/more compatible/newer code from various sources; the creative act is by one person.
On the topic. I agree totally. Ideas can't be killed.
okay.. so moderate me down. see if I care.
Okay- so we all hate Judge Kaplan and would like to see him violated in ways to painful and explicit to mention here; but killing DeCSS links is not the worst of this ruling, nor is the larger legal precedent over the internet; it's the precedent this could create over your use of any of your property that is now "licensed" instead of sold. Imagine this.
-Microsoft claims that Fat 32 partitions are a copy-protection scheme designed to protect their copyright on Microsoft Windows. This is actually true, in part. Fat 32 is not natively readable by other OSes and does protect the digital media of the Microsoft Windows Operating System. As a result, only Microsoft Licensed readers can read Fat 32 legally. Source code to read Fat 32 in any other way is now illegal. Bubye dual-boot. Live with only Linux or face the wrath of M$!
-MP3 format is bought by the RIAA. The encoding of MP3s is now a copy-protection scheme. Only licensed players may be used to play these files. Are there any licensed players? Hell no. Do they plan to make any? Hell no. Bubye MP3...
While these may seem far-fetched, ask yourself- did you ever think a judge would rule that it is illegal to link to a certain site? Now- ask yourself- when is enough enough? We've got to do something folks. This is getting out of hand.
In the end, the Internet is a "law-free" zone. It will become increasingly difficult to control as it becomes even more mainstream, and there is no way, short of complete control of all digital media to protect copyright or any other type of intellectual property standard. The Internet cannot be controlled; no encryption scheme cannot be broken, and there is no way to do anything to make any ruling truly stick. Pirates will continue to operate with impunity regardless of any ruling by the courts. In the end, anything like this will not be applicable without controls that would not hold up in court. So the issue is moot.
I believe the best bet for protection of digital media is to provide a better product than a pirate can. At the moment, the MPAA has the technology. I've watched DiVX;-) movies and I haven't been particularly impressed, especially considering the fact I've laid down the cash to get a dolby digital home theatre system to enjoy the superior audio quality of dvds, and dolby digital isn't available in DiVX;-) movies. Because of this, I buy dvd movies; however, I'd be interested in Linux dvd software, if for no other reason for novelty value. I also believe that it's important we stand up for our rights; the current trend towards complete corporate control of media frighten me, as it tends to dissolve my rights as a consumer. Restrictive laws, regardless of whether they can be enforced, frighten me, as they dissolve my rights as a citizen. This isn't about piracy; that's the cut and dried explanation that the MPAA would like to use to win the case. It's about the future of the Internet, and the future of our rights as consumers and citizens. If the courts do not rule that the DMCA is unconstitutional, you'll see alot of your freedom disappear immediately. Not only that, but you'll have to face the fact the courts seem uninterested in your rights.
That, my friends and readers, is the most frightening part of all; the courts, which have been the last bastion of the rule of law and citizen's rights have ruled in two cases against the people and for the corporations. They've sold us out because of the way the laws are written and look uninterested in rectifying that situation. If for no other reason than to protect ourselves, we must do something now.
Screw an irman. Too expensive/difficult to configure. If you want a cheap, easily set-up remote solution, get an X10 mouse remote and use the Max10 software (on sourceforge). It's great, it's RF, and it allows you do some really neat stuff. Not only that, but It'll control your whole home theatre system, so you can just be lazy. I've had a dvd player for quite awhile now, and never really enjoyed it till I got a remote... It's a joy to sit in my basement, press some keys and hear music from my room. It's also great for those lazy days when I don't want to get out of bed. On the DVD front; get a Creative Encore system. It'll do dolby digital out (you have to have an outboard decoder, but it's real ac3) and tv-out for dvds with a much better picture than I've seen on any other solution. But first, check out the X10 Website. Okay that's enough geeking out for me....
A classic example of this type of problem can be seen on our nation's (United States) highways (bear with me). Back in the dark ages, before the national highway system was built, people tended to settle near their places of employment. As the suburbs grew, the need for a larger traffic infrastructure became apparent. As a result, the highways were built; however, in many cases they were built with a) old technology b) poor planning for future growth and c) limited space. Now we're in the middle of huge construction projects all over the country to deal with these issues. Once again bear with me...
So what does this have to do with IP networking, specifically wireless networking? Well - the issues are the same. As the demand for high speed connections grows (especially in residential areas), the infrastructure will have to mature. Due to space constraints, cost of land lines and other things mentioned by earlier posters, we can't really have new land lines sprouting up wherever. Not only that, but it's not in our best interests. Any solution will become obsolete someday, but wireless systems are more applicable to the situation at hand; if we are unable to adobt such strategies, we'll face similar problems on the Internet than what we do on today's highways.
If anything I said wasn't apocryphal and totally based on opinion rather than fact, I apologize. I'm really looking for a forum to b*tch about the fricking construction project right near my house.
Man- this Anonymous Coward deserved to be moderated better. It's funny- really. Debian- see how stable this sucker is! C'mon! Of course we already know- look at Corel Linux (based on debian) and you can see how easy it is to make an UNSTABLE AS HELL debian based distro. God. I think the only thing that it didn't do that windows did was give me bluescreens. Sometimes I would have appreciated that-- at least a little information instead of a hang. Okay. That was offtopic as hell. oh well...
Hasn't everyone heard the paranoid "all our privacy will be gone" thing one time too many? I really don't care if people read my email: I don't send anything important over the net. Or say anything important on a telephone- you have a perfectly secure system for communication; talking to somebody face to face. This is just the same; if you're really worried about something like this, then don't do anything that would make the government want to track you. If you have a religious/moral/idiotic compunction against limiting your activities so, then move to another country. I'm tired of paranoid/. posts. I'm just sick of people looking at everything as a way that somehow they're going to lose something and it'll all suck. Guess what; privacy, like security, is an illusion. If somebody really wants to know something bad enough, they'll figure out how to do it. So just sit back, relax and enjoy what's going on. We live in exciting times where we can do lots of neat stuff. Anyways, I'd rather relax and have a good party then worry about what might happen one day when the government decides to implant us all with these chips. There's not much you or I can do to stop that, cause I bet most of you don't vote. And if you do, you've probably realized how much political power paranoid psychotics wield- none.
Finally, this is not meant as flame towards anyone in particular, nor an indictment of anyone's beliefs. It's just me saying darnit these paranoid posts are getting on my nerves. Almost as bad as that frickin penis bird. Almost.
The truth was out there, but it got slashdotted, so now we're all screwed.
Damn. That is without a doubt the most well thought out, well written thing I've read on/. in a long while. I've never posted before, but damn. You are absolutely right; the US government has definetly gone a long way towards the total abolition of privacy (Echelon, Carnivore, etc.). It's incredible people stand for it, and it's incredible that people will actually defend it. Somebody was talking about useful ways to use spare computing cycles--how about using them to work against "information-gathering" agents like Carnivore? How about fighting for our privacy online? Distributed computing could go a long way to a) overloading these systems with useless information or b) attacking them outright and taking them down. Enough work and we could defend our online privacy... Just a thought though; I hope the gestapo don't come knocking on my door for suggesting it...
Slashdot Mirror
It's sad that this got modded down. It's actually a) accurate, b)on-topic, and c) not the mindless drivel the Bush administration is trying to anesthetize the nation into accepting as the true causes of terrorism. Great to see that the slashdot moderators are doing their part to limit debate and encourage the flawed version of the terrorist's agenda the government is feeding to us.
As the Internet community has tried to tell people for years, our current ideas of Intellectual Property are dead. Copyright, patents and other monopolizing influences on pure information have no reason to exist and the Internet has finally given us the means to destroy these useless ideas. I'm not against credit for one's work; the GPL and other such licenses can protect that if people are responsible in their use of open-sourced information. The difference is that in the Information Age, if you're going to come up with ideas for the good of society, you'll have to do it solely for that reason. Is that so wrong? Would it be wrong to teach people that to do the right thing and do things that are positive for society is it's own reward in the recognition one receives? Must we promise lordly lifestyles to those who create good things? Not really. Imagine this; a world where people develop cancer medications that can be distributed at low cost because they want to cure cancer, not because they want to make money. A world where scientists work together to solve problems, instead of working separately to make money. Let's think about that. The only problem is corporations (who give us more reasons not to trust them every day) want to protect the old system, because it grants them power. The thing they don't realize is that they've already lost. The old world is dying a slow and painful death; let's do the responsible thing and euthanize it.
The thing that bothers me most is that egregious violations of personal liberties are going on every day and now we trot out one line of Supreme Court caselaw to say it's all okay. Just because one justice once said "the constitution is not a suicide pact" does not make it okay to break the rules that our social fabric is supposed to be based on. The funniest thing is that fear of terrorism (which is the whole reason you attack a country that way) has led us to give up our liberties. We're fighting for "freedom" in Afghanistan, but losing it all at home. If, with the clues they had, the CIA and FBI couldn't figure this one out how are we supposed to expect that with new powers they'll be able to do anything else? They won't. It's not commie-pinko bs like others would suggest. This is just straight talk. Police agencies can't do their jobs with the considerable leeway with regards to the law they are currently granted. Expecting that throwing more (mostly unconstitutional) powers in their hands will somehow make them do their job better is ridiculous. Not only that, but attacking the people who hate us is not a good way to show we're a tolerant nation. It makes us look just as bad as they say we are. Osama bin Laden shouldn't have much trouble finding recruits in Afghanistan or anywhere. The Great Satan has shown once again that we suck just as bad as they've always thought we did. So whatever. I guess we'll let good old Bushie decide for us. If not, we're probably terrorists anyway.
DivX on dreamcast works quite well, requires no hardware modification and is generally of decent quality. Without re-encoding any of my DivX movies, I've been able to watch them on the TV and I've been happy with the results. My total expense? Nothing but a $50 Dreamcast, a CDR, and a few seconds of bandwith to download the software. A similar setup on the Xbox would require alot more money, and while it might make the quality a tiny bit better, I think it'd probably be an unnoticeable difference anyways. Instead of supporting M$, which everybody here seems to hate with a vigor bordering on insanity, why not support the OPENSOURCE developers who are making dreamcast software.
Just a thought...
Just as an interesting thought; corporations are granted their charters for the "public good," right? What I wonder is who is doing the community more good, Napster (who have encouraged communication and sharing) or the RIAA (who encourage closemindness and destroy that feeling of community. As a society we need to stop abuses like this so we can takle control of our nation once more. James
Actually it's kind of funny to see that well-thought out, generally well written discourse about the moderation done on this site in an sid dedicated to moderation was modded down. It really speaks pretty badly about what's really going on here. Even if what he says isn't true, it's on-topic and it's an opinion. If you believe it's wrong for him to post his opinion, state it clearly on the homepage. If you don't want comments made on the state of moderation, don't comment on it yourself. If you are too insecure to allow people to question the authority with which you make moderation decisions, then make it clear that that is the way this place is going to be run. If you want all that without people questioning it, then DON'T HAVE SLASHDOT ANYMORE. DO AWAY WITH IT. IF YOU WANT TO BE MAINSTREAM NEWS, WITH MAINSTREAM COMMENTS AND MAINSTREAM OPINIONS, WORK FOR MSNBC. Don't try to cater to the open-source community or any other community like it by discouraging this kind of post. It's not going to work, because these are people who just will not listen. Mod me down. I don't care. Just realize what your goals are and state them clearly. And before you say "here's one of their little trolling buddies defending trolling" realize what you're saying- "here's someone who disagrees with us. Let's make certain we can make it so very few people hear what he has to say." Who are you then? If you can answer that question and be happy with the answer, be happy cause that's what you're doing.
But mastercard has set us up with the bomb!!!! LAUNCH ALL ZIG!
See the problem with the electoral college is that it makes this country seem pretty silly. It's an antiquated device that was questioned when it was first established. We've moved toward straight majority elections over the years; the senate is now popularly elected, and some states have revised the way they assign electors; however, it's not really enought. The US harps on fairness in other democracies, yet we can't even do it ourselves. Runoff elections would help; that way, Ralph Nader and other crazy third party candidates wouldn't rob the incoming president the chance for a strong mandate from the people. I think a straight majority should dictate the presidency; it's the fairest system we could devise, and any overhaul of our elections (especially after the circus in florida) would be a good thing. The point is that we really need to work on things; it's screwed up pretty bad. OK. Flame on...
Regardless of whether you agree with the person posting this, it shouldn't have been modded down. That's pretty messed up on the part of the moderators; it was posted by someone who has obviously done a little bit of research. I'm sorry you all support Ralph Nader, but why is this modded down? Solely on ideological differences, not on any real basis. If the moderators are going to mod down well thought out comments because of ideological differences, the whole point of comments is gone. So, please, mod this post up.
Just remember, when you're reaching towards geekdom, the most important thing to do is resist the intrusion of reality into your slashdot crazed mind. DO NOT READ OTHER SOURCES FOR NEWS! CNN and other news providers might distract you. Only get your news from slashdot. Don't read a newspaper. Don't ever leave the room your computer is in. If you have to, it better be to go to a job where you work on computers. Eating you say? I've read articles on how to cook on a car's motor; overclock your pc until you can cook food on the heatsink. Hell, you might be able to make a use of waste heat! Yes! And always, always, always look for ways to raise your SETI stats. Without that, you'll be horribly lost. Learn how to say "Imagine a beowulf cluster of those..." as a response to ANYTHING. Talk smack about trolls even though every once in awhile they're funny. Finally, make sure you do everything possible to portray yourself as a kharma whore(C)(R)(TM). That's a start. The rest will come naturally (that is, pale skin, no social life, and no chance of ever getting laid). Oh, and before anybody decides to take this seriously, remember this: I was deep enough into a /. comment to actually reply to this message. Obviously, I don't have a life either.
Open Source takes the ideas of individuals and combines them to the greater good. Linux is not a collaborative effort per se- The kernel is attributed to an individual (hmm... what was his name again...) and most software/kernel modules/kernel patches are originally the product of one person. It just happens that the open source model allows for collaborative sharing for better/more compatible/newer code from various sources; the creative act is by one person. On the topic. I agree totally. Ideas can't be killed. okay.. so moderate me down. see if I care.
Okay- so we all hate Judge Kaplan and would like to see him violated in ways to painful and explicit to mention here; but killing DeCSS links is not the worst of this ruling, nor is the larger legal precedent over the internet; it's the precedent this could create over your use of any of your property that is now "licensed" instead of sold. Imagine this. -Microsoft claims that Fat 32 partitions are a copy-protection scheme designed to protect their copyright on Microsoft Windows. This is actually true, in part. Fat 32 is not natively readable by other OSes and does protect the digital media of the Microsoft Windows Operating System. As a result, only Microsoft Licensed readers can read Fat 32 legally. Source code to read Fat 32 in any other way is now illegal. Bubye dual-boot. Live with only Linux or face the wrath of M$! -MP3 format is bought by the RIAA. The encoding of MP3s is now a copy-protection scheme. Only licensed players may be used to play these files. Are there any licensed players? Hell no. Do they plan to make any? Hell no. Bubye MP3... While these may seem far-fetched, ask yourself- did you ever think a judge would rule that it is illegal to link to a certain site? Now- ask yourself- when is enough enough? We've got to do something folks. This is getting out of hand.
I believe the best bet for protection of digital media is to provide a better product than a pirate can. At the moment, the MPAA has the technology. I've watched DiVX ;-) movies and I haven't been particularly impressed, especially considering the fact I've laid down the cash to get a dolby digital home theatre system to enjoy the superior audio quality of dvds, and dolby digital isn't available in DiVX ;-) movies. Because of this, I buy dvd movies; however, I'd be interested in Linux dvd software, if for no other reason for novelty value. I also believe that it's important we stand up for our rights; the current trend towards complete corporate control of media frighten me, as it tends to dissolve my rights as a consumer. Restrictive laws, regardless of whether they can be enforced, frighten me, as they dissolve my rights as a citizen. This isn't about piracy; that's the cut and dried explanation that the MPAA would like to use to win the case. It's about the future of the Internet, and the future of our rights as consumers and citizens. If the courts do not rule that the DMCA is unconstitutional, you'll see alot of your freedom disappear immediately. Not only that, but you'll have to face the fact the courts seem uninterested in your rights.
That, my friends and readers, is the most frightening part of all; the courts, which have been the last bastion of the rule of law and citizen's rights have ruled in two cases against the people and for the corporations. They've sold us out because of the way the laws are written and look uninterested in rectifying that situation. If for no other reason than to protect ourselves, we must do something now.
If this message was a troll, boy is my face red.
Screw an irman. Too expensive/difficult to configure. If you want a cheap, easily set-up remote solution, get an X10 mouse remote and use the Max10 software (on sourceforge). It's great, it's RF, and it allows you do some really neat stuff. Not only that, but It'll control your whole home theatre system, so you can just be lazy. I've had a dvd player for quite awhile now, and never really enjoyed it till I got a remote... It's a joy to sit in my basement, press some keys and hear music from my room. It's also great for those lazy days when I don't want to get out of bed. On the DVD front; get a Creative Encore system. It'll do dolby digital out (you have to have an outboard decoder, but it's real ac3) and tv-out for dvds with a much better picture than I've seen on any other solution. But first, check out the X10 Website. Okay that's enough geeking out for me....
A classic example of this type of problem can be seen on our nation's (United States) highways (bear with me). Back in the dark ages, before the national highway system was built, people tended to settle near their places of employment. As the suburbs grew, the need for a larger traffic infrastructure became apparent. As a result, the highways were built; however, in many cases they were built with a) old technology b) poor planning for future growth and c) limited space. Now we're in the middle of huge construction projects all over the country to deal with these issues. Once again bear with me... So what does this have to do with IP networking, specifically wireless networking? Well - the issues are the same. As the demand for high speed connections grows (especially in residential areas), the infrastructure will have to mature. Due to space constraints, cost of land lines and other things mentioned by earlier posters, we can't really have new land lines sprouting up wherever. Not only that, but it's not in our best interests. Any solution will become obsolete someday, but wireless systems are more applicable to the situation at hand; if we are unable to adobt such strategies, we'll face similar problems on the Internet than what we do on today's highways. If anything I said wasn't apocryphal and totally based on opinion rather than fact, I apologize. I'm really looking for a forum to b*tch about the fricking construction project right near my house.
Thing I'm wondering is what is the maximum available bandwith with an unladen african swallow, hmm?
Man- this Anonymous Coward deserved to be moderated better. It's funny- really. Debian- see how stable this sucker is! C'mon! Of course we already know- look at Corel Linux (based on debian) and you can see how easy it is to make an UNSTABLE AS HELL debian based distro. God. I think the only thing that it didn't do that windows did was give me bluescreens. Sometimes I would have appreciated that-- at least a little information instead of a hang. Okay. That was offtopic as hell. oh well...
Hasn't everyone heard the paranoid "all our privacy will be gone" thing one time too many? I really don't care if people read my email: I don't send anything important over the net. Or say anything important on a telephone- you have a perfectly secure system for communication; talking to somebody face to face. This is just the same; if you're really worried about something like this, then don't do anything that would make the government want to track you. If you have a religious/moral/idiotic compunction against limiting your activities so, then move to another country. I'm tired of paranoid /. posts. I'm just sick of people looking at everything as a way that somehow they're going to lose something and it'll all suck. Guess what; privacy, like security, is an illusion. If somebody really wants to know something bad enough, they'll figure out how to do it. So just sit back, relax and enjoy what's going on. We live in exciting times where we can do lots of neat stuff. Anyways, I'd rather relax and have a good party then worry about what might happen one day when the government decides to implant us all with these chips. There's not much you or I can do to stop that, cause I bet most of you don't vote. And if you do, you've probably realized how much political power paranoid psychotics wield- none.
Finally, this is not meant as flame towards anyone in particular, nor an indictment of anyone's beliefs. It's just me saying darnit these paranoid posts are getting on my nerves. Almost as bad as that frickin penis bird. Almost.
The truth was out there, but it got slashdotted, so now we're all screwed.
Damn. That is without a doubt the most well thought out, well written thing I've read on /. in a long while. I've never posted before, but damn. You are absolutely right; the US government has definetly gone a long way towards the total abolition of privacy (Echelon, Carnivore, etc.). It's incredible people stand for it, and it's incredible that people will actually defend it. Somebody was talking about useful ways to use spare computing cycles--how about using them to work against "information-gathering" agents like Carnivore? How about fighting for our privacy online? Distributed computing could go a long way to a) overloading these systems with useless information or b) attacking them outright and taking them down. Enough work and we could defend our online privacy... Just a thought though; I hope the gestapo don't come knocking on my door for suggesting it...