All this talk of communism and yet nobody replying to the above post seems to understand that America IS a very socialistic country. We subsidize airlines to the tune of forty billion dollars, farm subsidies are now back with a vengeance, the FDA lubricates Big Pharmacy's pockets with the blood and misery of the sick etc... It doesn't stop with corporate interests; we also subsidize education at the federal level with grants, the over-inflated price of housing is due to government interference in the market. Then there's the popular whipping-boy of socialistic policies, welfare, which though a drop in the bucket of our budget, is attacked mercilessly by politicians who want to give money to their rich corporate contributors. It's too bad that us Americans allowed our government to get as big and out of hand as it currently is. Were America actually a true free market society, the resulting economic boom would far eclipse our current ideas of prosperity.
Obligatory, "Infringement Vs theft" post.
on
Mashed-Up Music
·
· Score: 1
We don't yet live under a system of intellectual property feudalism, so your use of the word theft is misguided and poorly applied. The fact that your post got modded up as insightfull just goes to show that the technique of perverting the true meaning of words, is a very effective way to manipulate the course of a debate among laymen and the unweary.
The sheer scale and oppressiveness of the marker will make it a tourist attraction unless one of the less accessible designs is used. The field of spikes sounds like it'd be awesome to see firsthand. Also, the drawings depicting death by radiation would give the place an almost spiritual feel; as if an ignorant, ancient, and less enlightened people felt it were cursed, evil, or inhabited by evil spirits. The atmosphere would lend the feeling of being in a mysterious and forbiden place.
Yep, and an informed citizenry could put a stop to most government corruption in a heartbeat. But like a friend of mine is always telling me, "If, is a two-cent word with a million dollar meaning.".
The viruses formed a film that was strong enough to be handled with forceps. The organization of the film suggests to me that it would make an excellent substrate for a conventional hard drive or even solid state mass storage.
It's not the fact new technology has a different end result than old technology, so much as it presents a brand-spanking new opportunity for content producing lobbyists.
After what the gas and electric utility companies did last year, I don't blame NASA for sticking it to them by choosing kerosene to heat the shuttle. They'll just have to be sure to light it outside so it doesn't stink up the cockpit.
Gateway should play to the strengths of the internet. The various singles sites have already shown us the way. Gateway needs to set up a central distribution website that enables a user to search for music and bands locally, by state, region, country, etc... Kind of like AOL's Digital City, only for music. For promotion, give users the ability to moderate bands in a Karma system, like Slashdot. Throw in contests based on Karma or user votes, and then promote the popular and critically acclaimed music by genre (Tours, retail, etc.) Consumers will have the choice of searching for the most popular music, or digging through the lower rated material. An even playing field will foster the growth and recognition of talented musicians, quality music, and good showmanship. Finally, charge a flat fee per month or number of downloads. It'll be just like radio only not tainted by Cheap Channel's sleezy influence or RIAA member sponsored payola.
Star Wars SHOULD be in the public domain by now. I don't have the least bit of respect for copyrights older than the twenty years originally intended by the founding fathers of this country.
David Pierce's, Hedonistic Imperative Manifesto does an excellent job laying out the ethics of bioengineering and happiness.
http://www.hedweb.com/hedab.htm
If I'm going to be a trans-human, the super-happy, super-well, and super-intelligent type is the way for me. Too bad I was born too early to take advantage of clinical immortality and advanced bioengineering.
A pong marathon! I don't have cable so I'm going to have a friend tape it for me! I'll watch it two hours at a time so I can savor the experience longer!
Clifford D. Simak wrote a book along similar lines. It involved an alien race of large monolith-looking creatures who come to earth, eat our forests, reproduce, and start manufacturing things usefull to humans. They never speak directly to humans, but the characters in the book surmise the aliens motive is gratitude for sharing our planet and giving them an opportunity to save their race. It's been so long since I read it, I can hardly remember how it went. I don't remember the title, nor does a quick search on Amazon reveal any likely matches. Guess I'll have to dig deeper for it later.
I take Wellbutrin, which has noradrenic, as well as dopaminergic effects. It serves to keep me more awake and alert than I'd otherwise be, and it's effectively treating my Delayed Phase Sleep Disorder. I've tried Yohimbe. It just gives me a panic-attack kind of anxiousness; with none of the pro-sexual side effects. My friends all swear by it, so I must react to it atypically.
Modafinil, or Provigil as it's called here in the States, is a safe and effective eugoric drug. Why should I be FORCED to use a doctor as a middleman for any drug I wish to take? Fuck doctors, and fuck their prescription pad. I believe that us consumers have the right to make our own medical decisions, educated or otherwise.
And buy it here: http://www.smart-drugs.net/index.html
To encourage an environment of personal and medical freedom, join the Life Extension Foundation's efforts to reign in the FDA here: http://www.lef.org/
Everytime I hear about his new Nomad player, I think of that old Star Trek episode, with the confused probe. You know, it was an Earth probe with a mission to explore that melded with an alien probe who's mission was to sterilize. So it went around finding new planets to wipe clear of life. Ahhh the memories.
Oh, but there is a government enforced broadband monopoly. AOL/TW is the only carrier allowed to string lines in my area. Then there's EM Spectrum, some of which I can't use because our government might as well have sold it in exchange for magic beans; relative to its potential worth to individuals.
My internet connection costs fifty-five dollars a month, all of my ports work, and unofficially my IP is static. If you think that's such a great price, feel free to move out here and give AOL/TW twice their asking price for internet service.
You miss my point entirely. The cheaper bandwidth gets, the more the Internet will realize its potential as an engine of economic and social empowerment. It's as short-sighted for the broadband carriers to not invest in the future, as it was for the MPAA to try and strangle the VCR in its crib.
Allow me to take an inventory of my feelings about your attitude:
1.)Your name calling is annoying: Yep 2.)Anger: Nope. 3.)Humiliation: Nope 4.)It bothers me that you don't approve of me, my opinions or my reasoning: Nope 5.)I have nothing more to say to you: Yep
No, a load of crap is being price gauged by the government granted monopoly that is our nations telecomunications system.
Don't patronize me, I know full well the realities of the cost of bandwidth. Look above, for why I still think I'm being overcharged.
Let me clarify my position on content providers. I'm not saying that I should have the same access to personal equipment. Even if you gave me Slashdot's bandwidth, I don't have the equipment to utilize it. However, I feel that there is no good technical reason why I shouldn't be able to buy a fibre optic line to my house and fill it to the full capacity of my network's capabilities. This will eventually happen, I just don't want to be in a nursing home by the time it does.
I HAVE a real ISP, at least until they turn my broadband access into fast 24/7 dialup access. Don't think they'll go that far? Or it will be one of those cell phone things where even light usage results in sky high charges. I'll bet they get as close as they can short of customers switching back to their trusty 56k modems.
You hit the nail on the head. Bandwidth caps are all about monopolization, artificial scarcity, power, control, and greed. It's unlightened self interest at it's worst. So the broadband providers are happy to provide us with broadband speed, but want us to settle for dialup bandwidth usage. You get to the heart of why the internet hasn't become the engine of economic growth and societal change that it could be. When only corporations can afford the bandwidth to handle millions of users, small content providers are unable to make themselves heard above the corporate din.
Re:An explanation of why this man is a crank.
on
Time Travel
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· Score: 1
The inflamatory nature of the link I provided not withstanding, I feel no shame in finding the gist of the arguments against time travel plausible. I'm sorry to have taken a passing interest in the subject. In the future, I promise that I will only discus subjects in which I have a PhD, or in the context of attaining one. I find your elitist, overbearing attitude depressing.
Re:An explanation of why this man is a crank.
on
Time Travel
·
· Score: 1
My physics Kung Fu is poor too, though the argument you quote seemed logical enough. I hadn't really thought of the whole clock slowing down at high speed thing. At some point, the author of the page does go on to claim that they don't have a problem with relativity; they elaborate further by explaining that relativity discounts the possibility of movement in spacetime. So, that would mean that time slowing down for matter as it approaches the speed of light, isn't incompatible with the rest of his theories. My interpretation, is that he's asserting what we perceive as time, is really both energy, and change in physical coordinates. I don't have, and never will, the background to challenge his assertions that relativity works in a simple manner vs a highly esoteric and abstract manner. All the more power to anyone who wants to challenge convention with new ideas, I say.
Slashdot Mirror
All this talk of communism and yet nobody replying to the above post seems to understand that America IS a very socialistic country. We subsidize airlines to the tune of forty billion dollars, farm subsidies are now back with a vengeance, the FDA lubricates Big Pharmacy's pockets with the blood and misery of the sick etc... It doesn't stop with corporate interests; we also subsidize education at the federal level with grants, the over-inflated price of housing is due to government interference in the market. Then there's the popular whipping-boy of socialistic policies, welfare, which though a drop in the bucket of our budget, is attacked mercilessly by politicians who want to give money to their rich corporate contributors. It's too bad that us Americans allowed our government to get as big and out of hand as it currently is. Were America actually a true free market society, the resulting economic boom would far eclipse our current ideas of prosperity.
We don't yet live under a system of intellectual property feudalism, so your use of the word theft is misguided and poorly applied. The fact that your post got modded up as insightfull just goes to show that the technique of perverting the true meaning of words, is a very effective way to manipulate the course of a debate among laymen and the unweary.
The sheer scale and oppressiveness of the marker will make it a tourist attraction unless one of the less accessible designs is used. The field of spikes sounds like it'd be awesome to see firsthand. Also, the drawings depicting death by radiation would give the place an almost spiritual feel; as if an ignorant, ancient, and less enlightened people felt it were cursed, evil, or inhabited by evil spirits. The atmosphere would lend the feeling of being in a mysterious and forbiden place.
Yep, and an informed citizenry could put a stop to
most government corruption in a heartbeat. But like a friend of mine is always telling me, "If, is a two-cent word with a million dollar meaning.".
To businesses, the right balance is one which is heavily skewed against the consumer.
The viruses formed a film that was strong enough to be handled with forceps. The organization of the film suggests to me that it would make an excellent substrate for a conventional hard drive or even solid state mass storage.
It's not the fact new technology has a different end result than old technology, so much as it presents a brand-spanking new opportunity for content producing lobbyists.
After what the gas and electric utility companies did last year, I don't blame NASA for sticking it to them by choosing kerosene to heat the shuttle.
They'll just have to be sure to light it outside so it doesn't stink up the cockpit.
Gateway should play to the strengths of the internet. The various singles sites have already shown us the way. Gateway needs to set up a central distribution website that enables a user to search for music and bands locally, by state, region, country, etc... Kind of like AOL's Digital City, only for music. For promotion, give users the ability to moderate bands in a Karma system, like Slashdot. Throw in contests based on Karma or user votes, and then promote the popular and critically acclaimed music by genre (Tours, retail, etc.) Consumers will have the choice of searching for the most popular music, or digging through the lower rated material. An even playing field will foster the growth and recognition of talented musicians, quality music, and good showmanship. Finally, charge a flat fee per month or number of downloads. It'll be just like radio only not tainted by Cheap Channel's sleezy influence or RIAA member sponsored payola.
Star Wars SHOULD be in the public domain by now. I don't have the least bit of respect for copyrights older than the twenty years originally intended by the founding fathers of this country.
David Pierce's, Hedonistic Imperative Manifesto
does an excellent job laying out the ethics of bioengineering and happiness.
http://www.hedweb.com/hedab.htm
If I'm going to be a trans-human, the super-happy, super-well, and super-intelligent type is the way for me. Too bad I was born too early to take advantage of clinical immortality and advanced bioengineering.
A pong marathon! I don't have cable so I'm going to have a friend tape it for me! I'll watch it two hours at a time so I can savor the experience longer!
'...without any real concern as to whether they're screwing me in the process.'
Rest assured they thought of you, and they RELISH the prospect of screwing you.
Clifford D. Simak wrote a book along similar lines. It involved an alien race of large monolith-looking creatures who come to earth, eat our forests, reproduce, and start manufacturing things usefull to humans. They never speak directly to humans, but the characters in the book surmise the aliens motive is gratitude for sharing our planet and giving them an opportunity to save their race. It's been so long since I read it, I can hardly remember how it went. I don't remember the title, nor does a quick search on Amazon reveal any likely matches. Guess I'll have to dig deeper for it later.
It's kind of ironic that most of the negative aspects of illegal drugs are caused by their criminalization to begin with.
This market?
http://www.smart-drugs.net/index.html
It's under the trade name Modafinil.
I take Wellbutrin, which has noradrenic, as well as dopaminergic effects. It serves to keep me more awake and alert than I'd otherwise be, and it's effectively treating my Delayed Phase Sleep Disorder. I've tried Yohimbe. It just gives me a panic-attack kind of anxiousness; with none of the pro-sexual side effects. My friends all swear by it, so I must react to it atypically.
Modafinil, or Provigil as it's called here in the States, is a safe and effective eugoric drug. Why
should I be FORCED to use a doctor as a middleman
for any drug I wish to take? Fuck doctors, and fuck their prescription pad. I believe that us consumers have the right to make our own medical decisions, educated or otherwise.
Educate yourself here: http://www.provigil.com/pi.htm
And buy it here:
http://www.smart-drugs.net/index.html
To encourage an environment of personal and medical freedom, join the Life Extension Foundation's efforts to reign in the FDA here:
http://www.lef.org/
Only when I see it in connection to the NASA probe. When I hear the word Voyager, I have flashbacks to the horrible TV series.
Everytime I hear about his new Nomad player, I
think of that old Star Trek episode, with the
confused probe. You know, it was an Earth probe
with a mission to explore that melded with an
alien probe who's mission was to sterilize. So it
went around finding new planets to wipe clear of
life. Ahhh the memories.
Oh, but there is a government enforced broadband monopoly. AOL/TW is the only carrier allowed to string lines in my area. Then there's EM Spectrum, some of which I can't use because our government might as well have sold it in exchange for magic beans; relative to its potential worth to individuals.
My internet connection costs fifty-five dollars a month, all of my ports work, and unofficially my IP is static. If you think that's such a great price, feel free to move out here and give AOL/TW twice their asking price for internet service.
You miss my point entirely. The cheaper bandwidth gets, the more the Internet will realize its potential as an engine of economic and social empowerment. It's as short-sighted for the broadband carriers to not invest in the future, as
it was for the MPAA to try and strangle the VCR in its crib.
Allow me to take an inventory of my feelings about your attitude:
1.)Your name calling is annoying: Yep
2.)Anger: Nope.
3.)Humiliation: Nope
4.)It bothers me that you don't approve of me, my opinions or my reasoning: Nope
5.)I have nothing more to say to you: Yep
No, a load of crap is being price gauged by the government granted monopoly that is our nations telecomunications system.
Don't patronize me, I know full well the realities of the cost of bandwidth. Look above, for why I still think I'm being overcharged.
Let me clarify my position on content providers. I'm not saying that I should have the same access to personal equipment. Even if you gave me Slashdot's bandwidth, I don't have the equipment to utilize it. However, I feel that there is no good technical reason why I shouldn't be able to buy a fibre optic line to my house and fill it to the full capacity of my network's capabilities. This will eventually happen, I just don't want to be in a nursing home by the time it does.
I HAVE a real ISP, at least until they turn my broadband access into fast 24/7 dialup access.
Don't think they'll go that far? Or it will be one of those cell phone things where even light usage results in sky high charges. I'll bet they get as close as they can short of customers switching back to their trusty 56k modems.
You hit the nail on the head. Bandwidth caps are all about monopolization, artificial scarcity, power, control, and greed. It's unlightened self interest at it's worst. So the broadband providers are happy to provide us with broadband speed, but want us to settle for dialup bandwidth usage. You get to the heart of why the internet hasn't become the engine of economic growth and societal change that it could be. When only corporations can afford the bandwidth to handle millions of users, small content providers are unable to make themselves heard above the corporate din.
The inflamatory nature of the link I provided not withstanding, I feel no shame in finding the gist of the arguments against time travel plausible. I'm sorry to have taken a passing interest in the subject. In the future, I promise that I will only discus subjects in which I have a PhD, or in the context of attaining one. I find your elitist, overbearing attitude depressing.
My physics Kung Fu is poor too, though the argument you quote seemed logical enough. I hadn't really thought of the whole clock slowing down at high speed thing. At some point, the author of the page does go on to claim that they don't have a problem with relativity; they elaborate further by explaining that relativity discounts the possibility of movement in spacetime. So, that would mean that time slowing down for matter as it approaches the speed of light, isn't incompatible with the rest of his theories. My interpretation, is that he's asserting what we perceive as time, is really both energy, and change in physical coordinates. I don't have, and never will, the background to challenge his assertions that relativity works in a simple manner vs a highly esoteric and abstract manner. All the more power to anyone who wants to challenge convention with new ideas, I say.