There is at least one organization out there dedicated exclusively to amending/overturning UCITA. They go by the name AFFECT (Americans For Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions). Unsurprisingly, they're made up largely of librarians and IT types.
If you're interested in more information about the act, or maybe going a step further than just sending an email you might check out their websit. http://www.4cite.org/
Let me get this straight - we should combine all the specialized protocols into a couple of Meta-protocols. Why? So that people can remember their names. Hmmm.
Look, the naming schemes you refer to are not OSS specific and they have absolutely nothing to do with how ecommerce is adopted. You think grandma needs to know what protocol is serving the form she feeds her cc# into when she buys the latest Oprah Pick at Amazon? No, she just clicks "Buy it now. She could care less about anything more.
You actually think the people in charge of marketing the various distros get any say in anything? WHY? What does a marketing droid know about client server architectures?
As to ease of install, the last time I had to install Win2k it took me 4 hours. I had a standard Asus mlb with an extremely common integrated Sis NIC and soundcard. Win2k couldn't find drivers for any of it - I had to boot to SuSE and download the drivers that way. Thankfully I'd formatted the w2k partition using FAT32 so I could actually save the drivers to the win2k partition rather than burn them to a cd. Then I had to deal with the irritating way windows overwrote my boot sector and the royal mess it made of my partition table. Thank god for parted.
SuSE 8.0, btw, installed without a hitch - it autodetected everything (including the cdrw and soundcard) and had all the appropriate drivers. The install was idiot proof (I could have done it without having to make any decisions at all, but I like a little choice in my package selection). Where's the CS degree required?
Another thing, where did this whole European socialist conspiracy theory garbage come from? OSS doesn't stop at the US borders - it's open to everyone, that's the point.
Your analysis of the advantages of the internet (at the time) are largely correct. It provided you access to a much larger community that had some self-imposed standards.
However, BBS's had their own advantages. One of the biggest complaints I've heard about the death of the BBS is the Internet's failure to provide the same sense of community.
When you dialed up a small to medium sized BBS, odds were you were connecting to a community of people with similar interests - most of whom were in the same geographic region. If it was a well run board, the sysop carefully cultivated the community, excising boors and other undesirables.
So, sure - if you're looking for fellow 40k players who are also fond of Tasmanian fondu, you can find many more on the Internet than any BBS could ever provide; but the odds that they're in your hometown are drastically lower.
The BBS was one of the greatest ways to target the expansion of your circle of friends that I've ever seen. If I could have picked the way that the Internet evolved, I'd vote for it serving as an ancilliary data service while BBS's provide the main venue for electronic social interaction.
Actually, I've noticed the air getting cleaner - and I'm not alone.
Look at the infamous Cuyahoga River. Back in 1969 it caused quite a scandal when the pollutants in the river actually caught fire. These days the once uninhabitable river serves as a migration channel for several species of fish.
Look at Philedelphia - back in 1950 the smog got so bad that 11 people died in one 24 hour period and over 7000 people were hospitalized over the period of a weekend. Strange - last time I was in Philly I don't recall even minor air quality problems.
Hell, there is even talk that the bald eagle will be coming off the endangered species list!
Sure pollution exists - it's even a problem (in some places a major problem). Hardly an end of the world problem, however. Just because people love a good Apocalyptic scare doesn't mean that your children are going to have surgically implanted gas masks.
Cheap productive science is what you do once someone with more moxy has already done the expensive risky science.
200 years from now no one's going to remember who managed to squeeze 2 extra ergs out of the alkaline battery while trying to get 3 extra ergs out of the alkaline battery; but that guy who cracks universal free power while trying to iron out antigravity, matter conversion, a light speed drive, or a penis enlarger that actually works will earn immortality as the model of choice for the crazey genius caricature in all future WB cartoons.
Ozone Layer Gone? No Rainforests? NO ATMOSHPERE? Woa - I need to cash out that Metlife portfolio!
But seriously, where does this garbage come from? That Ozone layer scare was discredited almost before it even began - the hole in the Ozone Layer is an effective mechanism for balancing global temperature and atmospheric mix. The only affect mankind's had on that is to speed up the process.
As to no rainforest - that may be true (although I'm skeptical),but what's that got to do with the price of tea? True, it would be a tragic loss of bio-diversity, but our biosphere's dealt with far worse. It always amazes me when people use the recession of rainforest acreage as a measure of climatic destruction - after all, the rainforest accounts for less than 2% of the world's carbon scrubbing.
Eco-scares make me wonder if the age of enlightenment may have actually provided fodder for mysticism. Of course, I probably shouldn't complain. After all, if you support a positive measure like this, who cares if your motivation is to finally be so far away from those CIA electronic fields that you can finally doff your aluminum foil hat?
I've seen Gentoo run, and I think you maybe misunderstanding the appeal. With Gentoo you don't have to manually compile each package one at a time. You execute one command to begin the compilation of whichever src you want, Gentoo then grabs the source that you want to compile from whichever server and compiles it + ALL THE MISSING DEPENDANCIES. Saves a lot of time not having to double check to make sure you've tracked down all the necessary packages.
ISBN based may be innefficient. If you're library has any real depth you run into the same problem that prevents used bookstores from using a similar system: ISBN's were only widely implemented about 20 years ago(some margin for error there - I don't recall the exact date). Title/Author/Publisher is the only way to id books predating ISBN's.
As I understand it, his suggestion is to apply the "many eyes" philosophy of open source to privacy/freedom/security. Seems like an elegant solution - if it works.
Slashdot Mirror
There is at least one organization out there dedicated exclusively to amending/overturning UCITA. They go by the name AFFECT (Americans For Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions). Unsurprisingly, they're made up largely of librarians and IT types.
If you're interested in more information about the act, or maybe going a step further than just sending an email you might check out their websit.
http://www.4cite.org/
Let me get this straight - we should combine all the specialized protocols into a couple of Meta-protocols. Why? So that people can remember their names. Hmmm.
Look, the naming schemes you refer to are not OSS specific and they have absolutely nothing to do with how ecommerce is adopted. You think grandma needs to know what protocol is serving the form she feeds her cc# into when she buys the latest Oprah Pick at Amazon? No, she just clicks "Buy it now. She could care less about anything more.
You actually think the people in charge of marketing the various distros get any say in anything? WHY? What does a marketing droid know about client server architectures?
As to ease of install, the last time I had to install Win2k it took me 4 hours. I had a standard Asus mlb with an extremely common integrated Sis NIC and soundcard. Win2k couldn't find drivers for any of it - I had to boot to SuSE and download the drivers that way. Thankfully I'd formatted the w2k partition using FAT32 so I could actually save the drivers to the win2k partition rather than burn them to a cd. Then I had to deal with the irritating way windows overwrote my boot sector and the royal mess it made of my partition table. Thank god for parted.
SuSE 8.0, btw, installed without a hitch - it autodetected everything (including the cdrw and soundcard) and had all the appropriate drivers. The install was idiot proof (I could have done it without having to make any decisions at all, but I like a little choice in my package selection). Where's the CS degree required?
Another thing, where did this whole European socialist conspiracy theory garbage come from? OSS doesn't stop at the US borders - it's open to everyone, that's the point.
You sir, are a troll.
Your analysis of the advantages of the internet (at the time) are largely correct. It provided you access to a much larger community that had some self-imposed standards.
However, BBS's had their own advantages. One of the biggest complaints I've heard about the death of the BBS is the Internet's failure to provide the same sense of community.
When you dialed up a small to medium sized BBS, odds were you were connecting to a community of people with similar interests - most of whom were in the same geographic region. If it was a well run board, the sysop carefully cultivated the community, excising boors and other undesirables.
So, sure - if you're looking for fellow 40k players who are also fond of Tasmanian fondu, you can find many more on the Internet than any BBS could ever provide; but the odds that they're in your hometown are drastically lower.
The BBS was one of the greatest ways to target the expansion of your circle of friends that I've ever seen. If I could have picked the way that the Internet evolved, I'd vote for it serving as an ancilliary data service while BBS's provide the main venue for electronic social interaction.
Hmmm.... I wonder what sort of impact this is going to have on the military's bandwidth shortage?
Actually, I've noticed the air getting cleaner - and I'm not alone.
Look at the infamous Cuyahoga River. Back in 1969 it caused quite a scandal when the pollutants in the river actually caught fire. These days the once uninhabitable river serves as a migration channel for several species of fish.
Look at Philedelphia - back in 1950 the smog got so bad that 11 people died in one 24 hour period and over 7000 people were hospitalized over the period of a weekend. Strange - last time I was in Philly I don't recall even minor air quality problems.
Hell, there is even talk that the bald eagle will be coming off the endangered species list!
Sure pollution exists - it's even a problem (in some places a major problem). Hardly an end of the world problem, however. Just because people love a good Apocalyptic scare doesn't mean that your children are going to have surgically implanted gas masks.
Cheap productive science is what you do once someone with more moxy has already done the expensive risky science.
200 years from now no one's going to remember who managed to squeeze 2 extra ergs out of the alkaline battery while trying to get 3 extra ergs out of the alkaline battery; but that guy who cracks universal free power while trying to iron out antigravity, matter conversion, a light speed drive, or a penis enlarger that actually works will earn immortality as the model of choice for the crazey genius caricature in all future WB cartoons.
Ozone Layer Gone? No Rainforests? NO ATMOSHPERE? Woa - I need to cash out that Metlife portfolio!
But seriously, where does this garbage come from?
That Ozone layer scare was discredited almost before it even began - the hole in the Ozone Layer is an effective mechanism for balancing global temperature and atmospheric mix. The only affect mankind's had on that is to speed up the process.
As to no rainforest - that may be true (although I'm skeptical),but what's that got to do with the price of tea? True, it would be a tragic loss of bio-diversity, but our biosphere's dealt with far worse. It always amazes me when people use the recession of rainforest acreage as a measure of climatic destruction - after all, the rainforest accounts for less than 2% of the world's carbon scrubbing.
Eco-scares make me wonder if the age of enlightenment may have actually provided fodder for mysticism. Of course, I probably shouldn't complain. After all, if you support a positive measure like this, who cares if your motivation is to finally be so far away from those CIA electronic fields that you can finally doff your aluminum foil hat?
I've seen Gentoo run, and I think you maybe misunderstanding the appeal. With Gentoo you don't have to manually compile each package one at a time. You execute one command to begin the compilation of whichever src you want, Gentoo then grabs the source that you want to compile from whichever server and compiles it + ALL THE MISSING DEPENDANCIES. Saves a lot of time not having to double check to make sure you've tracked down all the necessary packages.
Anyone else find it funny that this article launches pop-unders?
ISBN based may be innefficient. If you're library has any real depth you run into the same problem that prevents used bookstores from using a similar system: ISBN's were only widely implemented about 20 years ago(some margin for error there - I don't recall the exact date). Title/Author/Publisher is the only way to id books predating ISBN's.
Hmmm - adds whole new meaning to that old Taoist saying
"Mess Not With The Mouse"
As I understand it, his suggestion is to apply the "many eyes" philosophy of open source to privacy/freedom/security. Seems like an elegant solution - if it works.
Indrema was one of the many victims of the stock market plummet - the company folded late this last summer.