This would have made a wonderful test case for the courts to rule on the applicability and Consitiutionality of the DCMA. Certainly going to court is always risky, but as I understand it, the courts have generally upheld reverse engineering. Additionally, I think that most judges would laugh the RIAA out of the courtroom based on the facts of the case - "You mean you asked them to crack/reverse engineer your encryption and now want to gag them?!?"
In addition to preventing the ever-increasing definition of "circumvention device", there's an important free speech issue at stake here. If they had pressed the issue, they could have reeled in the RIAA a bit.
We could probably do this the same way the Playstation 2 does: a nice little dongle gives us all the options necessary even for older sets, without cluttering the actual device.
Shouldn't that be a "pigtail", instead of a "dongle"? A dongle serves a copy-protection function, where pigtails allow differing connector types. My boss gets this wrong all the time, and it drives me nuts when he calls his ethernet pigtail his "network dongle". If only I could copy protect his network connection...
I predict that X-Box will pretty much walk away with this generation's console crown. And as long as the GC last long enough for Nintendo to release Metroid, I'm fine with that. Why?
Atari 2600
ColecoVision
Nintendo Entertainment System
Sega Genesis
Sony PlayStation
What the one constant in this list? Not one company retained their lead from one generation to the next. (Yes, the SNES overtook the Genesis late, but by that time the Saturn and PSX were already in the pipeline.)
Conker's BFD was produced by Rareware (the company that also did Goldeneye). Nintendo may not be blocking adult titles on their system, but neither are they themselves producing them.
Well, in that case, don't count Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, Driver, Tomb Raider, or Resident Evil into the PS2's maturity level.
If developers make more than kid's games for a system, then the system won't be perceived as such. Nintendo got into trouble with the N64 because the cart format drove most developers away and they were left with their own in-house and second party games.
-sk
Even though this is going to get lost in the noise
on
Sean In The Middle
·
· Score: 2
...I've got to wonder what's the other side of the story. Even if the school district isn't saying anything, responsible journalism would have attempted to give the other side of the story. This is like reading a story about the Florida election mess on Rush Limbaugh's site. Is it any surprise we get all riled up? We're fscking sheep.
Sure it may work for you, as it does for many. But are you going to complain when you can't view a Sorenson encoded file? Or when you can't read a.doc file when the format been changed? Or when you can't browse the web without paying for MSIE because they've embraced and extended HTML to point that it's unreadable by anything else?
Sure there are other options out there, but my point is that for those who choose not to pay the MS tax, you're high-tech tools will become more and more worthless in the age MS-ified content. Obviously, this doesn't apply to non-content related computer uses (i.e. computing, etc...) but for those who use their computers to write documents, view movies, listen to music, and share these thing with others, they'll be forced into an MS world.
When a company has hegemonical power in a market, say a market share of 90%+, this is inevitable response. Now that all of their main commercial competition has been obliterated, there's nothing to prevent them from jacking up the price of all of their products.
Like your free IE? Expect to start paying for it within two years. With their browser market share, they can start extending what they've embraced, if they haven't already. Like the free MS Reader? Once they own the e-book market, look for that to cost too. The only reason MS Word readers are free is that there's so little demand for them. Everyone has Word (or something that will read.doc files until they change the format again.)
If everyone is using MS, then it's easier for someone to pay more to keep using MS than it is to use something non-MS. With their huge market share, MS is the standard. Don't like their propritary format? Tough. Don't like the content-protection? Live with it. Don't want your personal information transmitted to marketers? Conspiracy nut. Complain? NO WINDOWS FOR YOU! What are you going to do? Use EMACS? You'll be the highest-tech Luddite. All the multimedia content out on the Internet (built on non-MS systems even) will be useless to you because you hold to your principle.
This is why MS is dangerous, this is why their monoploy is wrong. For all the Libertarian out there who said that while MS was wrong, the DOJ was more wrong, let me make this clear. MS will take away your options and your rights in the new high-tech world. Imagine the complaints about the Sorenson codec applied to everything from.mpg to.html (oops,.htm).
You either need to work seriously to elect someone new or re-examine what the hell you wrote. I've almost never heard of a snail-mail letter from a constituent not getting at least a form letter reply.
You have two options here: be biased or be trusted. It doesn't matter if you hide you biases or not, your readers will know. While it's comendable that you don't hide you biases, you can't really blame your readers for not buying your biased side of the story.
I don't expect writers to be neutral, but I do expect journalists to at least fairly present both sides. Jamie, you're certainly a writer, not a journalist, that's why I double-check your facts before I hop on your train.
Here's where I disagree with your reporting on this story: You present the Perl code and a lengthy discussion of the error first, yet the resulting misunderstanding was explained by the teacher and neither got in trouble for it. As for "S's" police record, you make it sound like it a big deal (esp. with your association of S's new-found record to Russian police records) but I simply don't have enough information to judge whether it is a big deal or not. Finally, your over-playing of the code error diminishes the real point of concern: that a school requires a student to give up his/her First Amendment rights outside of school time and off school property. Private or not, this is troubling to me.
Do you see the problem? Your discussion of a Perl error that had no impact diminshed awareness of further erosion of the First Amendment.
As for not being misleading and correcting yourself ASAP, where's your clarification/correction for this story that the students were investigated for a posting on their web site that appeared to be a treat? Where's your clarification/correction for this story that the students were suspended for violating the school's polcy that they agreed to?
Lame attempt to "inflame the troops?" What do you call 768 comments? You're not inflamatory? How about:
Insinuating that the school adminstrators, except for the computer science teacher, are in league with Darth Vader.
Equating school administrators to sleeping children with "visions...dancing in their heads".
The whole issue of the fortune mishap simply brought attention to the two kids, who then got suspended for violating the rules of the school.
But rather than talk about the issue of First Amendment rights and how these are kids in school who aren't protected in those rights (not to mention that they gave those rights up by going to private school), Jamie would rather lather up the troops by portraying this as a classic overreaction to a recent school shooting. Voices from the Hellmouth, this is not.
On a related note, I don't trust Jamie's reporting. His involvement in censorware issues is as a participant, not as a journalist. His reporting on other issues is misleading and inflamatory (moreso than other/. authors). I've learned to double-check anything Jamie says before I get my panties in a twist.
While Fair Use might be an issue as to whether a service like CDDB is legal in the first place, I don't see how it applies here.
CDDB has a service that it provides - a database of CDs, songs, and artists (btw- a database that they built of the labor of volunteers). Connecting to their servers to get the information is at their discretion. Grip doesn't have that discretion. Grip tries to establish a connection to CDDB servers that CDDB doesn't want. The information is available elsewhere, namely FreeDB. This isn't a result of a bad law, it's a result of CDDB being an ass and changing the rules of how an application can connect to it.
While I dislike CDDB and their restrictive agreements for developers and end-users alike, and while I think this action is kinda low, they are within their rights as a service provider. Would an ISP be justified to cut off a deadbeat account? This is a similar situation.
I have to take exception to his resolution. He wants to pass more legislation to resolve the problems in the DMCA. I fear that more legislation would just create more confusion over just what is and is not legal. I'd much prefer him to speak about amending the current code to strike the parts of the DMCA that over-reach.
If you think comparing licenses is hard, wait until you try to decipher whether or not you can loan your DVD to a friend.
In addition to the lack of people who'd rather play on MAME, MESS, Nesticle, etc... there's also the hassles of hooking up old games to current TV's and finding a place to store all that stuff. Not only is the inventory difficult to acquire, the demand from gamers isn't there either. My local game shop started carrying classics in part because of my interest, but stopped displaying them because there wasn't enough interest to justify the shelf space devoted to them.
What I've kinda looked into, though, is opening a kind of "gamer's bar" like an internet cafe, but more focused on games and more of an entertainment atmosphere. Not going as far as a gaming mueseum as some have suggested, but enough classic and current games to draw all types of gamers. A few questions have held me back:
How to set up the method of letting people play the games without risking theft. I know losing those Combat carts would hurt so much!
If I build it, will they come? How do you draw gamers away from their nice comfy sofas? How do you get parents to drop their kids off at an arcade-like setting, or more difficult, how do you keep the parents there?
Where's the beef? Do you set your buisness model up to make money off the gamers playing games or the things that they'll need while playing (soda, beer, popcorn, blister pads, women, etc...)
Any ideas to bring "Squirrel Killers" off the ground?
I was trying to make a point about the differences in wages, not putting up a spreadsheet of the exact figures. Comparing 3rd World wages to American wages is, as they say, comparing apples to oranges. The point is, as bad off as the 3rd world is, they'd probably be worse off if the multi-nationals pulled up and left.
As for improving standard of living and working conditions as their county's economy improves. But the key to remember is, it doesn't happen overnight. These are the dislocation costs in going from no economy to a more modern one.
Unfortunately, the definition of "periodical" uses the first definition of "publish". Want to check? Slap your definition of "publish" into the definition of "periodical".
"
Periodical - To bring to the public attention or to annouce at regular intervals of more than one day"
A magazine wouldn't be announced that frequently, would it? I probably couldn't convince you disagreed, but I'd submit that magazine and periodicals are published in the first sense of the definition. I would, however, agree with you that it's ironic that the definitions we can be used (if incorrectly) against us.
Q: The most obvious question, and the one most on our minds, is what has Jim been doing since the end of Jim's Journal? We're especially interested in any current projects you have in the works.
J: After college, I got a job. It wasn't as good.
Q: Where can we find more information about your latest projects?
J: Oh, I don't know. I think my boss has a job responsibilities list I could give you.
Q: The thing that originally attracted us to Jim's Journal was how dull and predictable its humor was. We really got a sense that you were bored writing the strip. Towards the end of your run, almost without us noticing it, that mood changed. Upon rereading them in their collections, this really becomes more noticeable. Is this an accurate observation? What changed?
J: I guess Tony just brought me down.
Q: Are you aware of the web comic phenomenon and do you currently read any of them?
J: My boss doesn't let us use the Internet.
Q: Any cartoonist that went to college in the 90's was probably influenced by Jim's Journal. However, as more and more people publish their work to the net, we're amazed at how blatantly people will borrow from your work and present it as their own. How do you feel about that?
J: My stuff wasn't really any good.
Q: One of the things that's been floating around the web is a speech that Bill Watterson gave on the future of cartooning and where it needs to go. The thing infuriates me personally, as does his stance on how merchandising a comic strip cheapens it. Didn't you and he have some public debate on this matter?
J: I like Bill, but Tony thinks he's a pinko freak.
Q: It's no secret that Simon from Sesame Street sent you a letter when Jim's Journal first started in regards to the similarities between your strips at the time. Were you and he ever able to get past your differences and do you ever have any contact with him now?
J: I don't watch Sesame Street even though Ruth says it makes her laugh out loud. I don't know Simon.
Q: Assuming you were, at one point, a fan of Star Trek, are you still one now? How do you feel about the current state of the franchise?
J: Tony thinks that the new series sucks ass. I think he's a little worked up over it.
Q: We found out that Ruth was expecting in the fall of 2000. Doing some quick math, we can figure out pretty easily that you're a new "uncle". How is "unclehood" treating you?
J: I see less of Ruth now, but the baby is cute.
Q: What did you do for Valentine's Day?
J: I ignore Hallmark Holidays.
Q: What do you think of the current crop of comic strips in the paper right now? Which comics do you enjoy reading?
J: Most of them look like they were drawn by a nine-year old. I bet Ruth's baby could get published.
Q: Do you have any regrets about not drawing Jim's Journal any more? Do you miss it?
J: No.
Q: Are all the Jim's Journal strips that have appeared in newspapers available in your collections? If not, how did you decide which of your strips would be included the books?
J: Someone wants to read it again?
Q: Is there a chance that you would return to drawing a daily comic strip and would you consider doing it for the net instead of newspapers? In our opinion, it's a much better venue for the art.
J: Like I said, my boss doesn't let us use the Internet.
Q: I made a special trip to the library while in Madison to take a look at Academia Waltz. I think a lot of your fans would like to see that work. Is there a way for them to get a look at that without making the trek to Madison? It would make great material for a web site!
J: You should visit Madison, we've got good beer.
Q: We found a book called "Jim's Journal, Garfield, Doonesbury and All That Not Funny Stuff." in which the author presents your words from various book jackets and other magazine interviews in such a way that makes it look like he's interviewing you personally. Have you seen this thing?
J: I should have said less.
Q: You have a habit of not breaking yourself while engaging in your hobbies (i.e. reading, watching TV, baking brownies, etc.). Has your heart started beating yet? Have you toned things up a bit?
J: Nope.
Q: We notice that you're very active in the animal rights community. But also, we've heard a rumor that you kept an alligator in your apartment at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. At the time, the North American alligator was on the endangered species list (which probably wouldn't sit well with the PETA crowd). Could you tell us about the journey you took in becoming an animal rights activist? Was it just a ploy to meet a wife?
J: Tony lied about that to scare Ruth off.
Q: Does Ruth still own a cat? How do you keep everything free of cathair and mice corpses? My three year old tan and white (Kirby) spreads it around like nobody's business.
J: Ruth let the cat loose after the baby. I think it got ran over by a car.
You're absolutely correct, Nike is not trying to be humanitarian when it sets up a sweatshop in Bora Bora or whereever. They're trying to make a profit. Labor is so cheap in some of these third world countries that it makes up for all of the shipping costs involved.
But by virtue of setting up business there, Nike does help the countries out. Nike and others employ people in these countries who would otherwise be sitting around starving. Why is labor so cheap over there? Because it's so plentiful. Think about it, if you and 100,000 of your best friends were sitting around starving, and a company came in offering 1,000 jobs, they wouldn't have to pay very much to get you to apply. Maybe if more companies went over there to "exploit" the workers, the available labor pool would shrink enough that companies would be forced to pay more for labor.
And are the wages really all that low? Recall that Sally Struthers says I can feed a village for $10/month. In that economy someone making $1/day is wealthy.
publish (pub' lish) v.
1. To prepare and issue (printed material) for public distribution or sale.
2. To bring to the public attention; announce.
Despite FrontPage's nifty "Publish" command, I'd submit that a web site isn't published, it's uploaded.
For all the talk of "e-magazines" there is a vast difference between a web site and a magazine, and for that matter, a television magazine. That they're packaged differently by definition makes them different.
The real bullshit is that Referee Mag wants to stop eReferee from redirecting traffic from the now banned eReferee.com to the legit officiating.com.
Wouldn't that be even more confusing? Click on your bookmark or hyperlink to eReferee.com and get a 404. I'd assume that eReferee.com had gone belly up, just like so many other sites. That seems overly punitive. Not only does eReferee lose it's domain, but Referee Mag wants them to lose their current user base.
Huh? eReferee is a website and Referee Magazine is a magazine. I realize that both are news sources, but how can you say that their both magazines? Is/. a magazine?
Web sites and magazine are vastly different things. A magazine requires a physical distribution network, printing presses, layout people, etc... A web site requires a server, a decent internet connection, network admins, etc... They may both be sources of information, but would eHistory.com infrige on The History Channel?
Well, I know on rgvc, they used to ban emulator scores, but TwinGalaxies has a Platform option for "Emulator", so it would appear that they do allow them to some extent. They do track different platform versions of a game seperately, so I don't have to beat the high score on Atari 2600 Frogger to be the top ColecoVision Frogger player. As far a controller differences, pretty much anything is fair game, although I think they might draw the line if you came in with an Atari 2600 joystick wired up to a computer that knew the right patterns for Pac-Man.
I absolutely couldn't stand that game. Your character was about as slow as my own couch-potatoed ass. And switching from horizontial to vertical movement (or vice-versa) while being chased was impossible.
Thanks for spoiling my trip down memory lane. Burn all Burger Time games!
Slashdot Mirror
In addition to preventing the ever-increasing definition of "circumvention device", there's an important free speech issue at stake here. If they had pressed the issue, they could have reeled in the RIAA a bit.
-sk
-sk
What the one constant in this list? Not one company retained their lead from one generation to the next. (Yes, the SNES overtook the Genesis late, but by that time the Saturn and PSX were already in the pipeline.)
-sk
Well, in that case, don't count Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, Driver, Tomb Raider, or Resident Evil into the PS2's maturity level.
If developers make more than kid's games for a system, then the system won't be perceived as such. Nintendo got into trouble with the N64 because the cart format drove most developers away and they were left with their own in-house and second party games.
-sk
-sk
Sure there are other options out there, but my point is that for those who choose not to pay the MS tax, you're high-tech tools will become more and more worthless in the age MS-ified content. Obviously, this doesn't apply to non-content related computer uses (i.e. computing, etc...) but for those who use their computers to write documents, view movies, listen to music, and share these thing with others, they'll be forced into an MS world.
-sk
Like your free IE? Expect to start paying for it within two years. With their browser market share, they can start extending what they've embraced, if they haven't already. Like the free MS Reader? Once they own the e-book market, look for that to cost too. The only reason MS Word readers are free is that there's so little demand for them. Everyone has Word (or something that will read .doc files until they change the format again.)
If everyone is using MS, then it's easier for someone to pay more to keep using MS than it is to use something non-MS. With their huge market share, MS is the standard. Don't like their propritary format? Tough. Don't like the content-protection? Live with it. Don't want your personal information transmitted to marketers? Conspiracy nut. Complain? NO WINDOWS FOR YOU! What are you going to do? Use EMACS? You'll be the highest-tech Luddite. All the multimedia content out on the Internet (built on non-MS systems even) will be useless to you because you hold to your principle.
This is why MS is dangerous, this is why their monoploy is wrong. For all the Libertarian out there who said that while MS was wrong, the DOJ was more wrong, let me make this clear. MS will take away your options and your rights in the new high-tech world. Imagine the complaints about the Sorenson codec applied to everything from .mpg to .html (oops, .htm).
-sk
You either need to work seriously to elect someone new or re-examine what the hell you wrote. I've almost never heard of a snail-mail letter from a constituent not getting at least a form letter reply.
You have two options here: be biased or be trusted. It doesn't matter if you hide you biases or not, your readers will know. While it's comendable that you don't hide you biases, you can't really blame your readers for not buying your biased side of the story.
I don't expect writers to be neutral, but I do expect journalists to at least fairly present both sides. Jamie, you're certainly a writer, not a journalist, that's why I double-check your facts before I hop on your train.
Here's where I disagree with your reporting on this story: You present the Perl code and a lengthy discussion of the error first, yet the resulting misunderstanding was explained by the teacher and neither got in trouble for it. As for "S's" police record, you make it sound like it a big deal (esp. with your association of S's new-found record to Russian police records) but I simply don't have enough information to judge whether it is a big deal or not. Finally, your over-playing of the code error diminishes the real point of concern: that a school requires a student to give up his/her First Amendment rights outside of school time and off school property. Private or not, this is troubling to me.
Do you see the problem? Your discussion of a Perl error that had no impact diminshed awareness of further erosion of the First Amendment.
As for not being misleading and correcting yourself ASAP, where's your clarification/correction for this story that the students were investigated for a posting on their web site that appeared to be a treat? Where's your clarification/correction for this story that the students were suspended for violating the school's polcy that they agreed to?
Lame attempt to "inflame the troops?" What do you call 768 comments? You're not inflamatory? How about:
- Insinuating that the school adminstrators, except for the computer science teacher, are in league with Darth Vader.
- Equating school administrators to sleeping children with "visions...dancing in their heads".
- "Rules like theirs are great for raising robots."
- How you just wish McCarthyism didn't happen here.
- Warning us to expect kids getting suspended for reading Coke.com on Pepsi Day.
- Asking us to ignore rampant copyright infrigement because the music industry just makes too much damn money. Class warfare anyone?
- And to round it out, little ad homienum attack on me to "get a grip" because you'd never be inflamatory.
Yeah, right...you're not inflamatory Jamie. Those 500+ comments per story you're averaging are just trolls discussing Natalie Portmann.-sk
Except that Slashdot would /. itself...HavenCo only has a 256kbs link to the internet.
But rather than talk about the issue of First Amendment rights and how these are kids in school who aren't protected in those rights (not to mention that they gave those rights up by going to private school), Jamie would rather lather up the troops by portraying this as a classic overreaction to a recent school shooting. Voices from the Hellmouth, this is not.
On a related note, I don't trust Jamie's reporting. His involvement in censorware issues is as a participant, not as a journalist. His reporting on other issues is misleading and inflamatory (moreso than other /. authors). I've learned to double-check anything Jamie says before I get my panties in a twist.
-sk
-sk
CDDB has a service that it provides - a database of CDs, songs, and artists (btw- a database that they built of the labor of volunteers). Connecting to their servers to get the information is at their discretion. Grip doesn't have that discretion. Grip tries to establish a connection to CDDB servers that CDDB doesn't want. The information is available elsewhere, namely FreeDB. This isn't a result of a bad law, it's a result of CDDB being an ass and changing the rules of how an application can connect to it.
While I dislike CDDB and their restrictive agreements for developers and end-users alike, and while I think this action is kinda low, they are within their rights as a service provider. Would an ISP be justified to cut off a deadbeat account? This is a similar situation.
-sk
If you think comparing licenses is hard, wait until you try to decipher whether or not you can loan your DVD to a friend.
-sk
What I've kinda looked into, though, is opening a kind of "gamer's bar" like an internet cafe, but more focused on games and more of an entertainment atmosphere. Not going as far as a gaming mueseum as some have suggested, but enough classic and current games to draw all types of gamers. A few questions have held me back:
Any ideas to bring "Squirrel Killers" off the ground?
-sk
As for improving standard of living and working conditions as their county's economy improves. But the key to remember is, it doesn't happen overnight. These are the dislocation costs in going from no economy to a more modern one.
-sk
A magazine wouldn't be announced that frequently, would it? I probably couldn't convince you disagreed, but I'd submit that magazine and periodicals are published in the first sense of the definition. I would, however, agree with you that it's ironic that the definitions we can be used (if incorrectly) against us.
-sk
J: After college, I got a job. It wasn't as good.
Q: Where can we find more information about your latest projects?
J: Oh, I don't know. I think my boss has a job responsibilities list I could give you.
Q: The thing that originally attracted us to Jim's Journal was how dull and predictable its humor was. We really got a sense that you were bored writing the strip. Towards the end of your run, almost without us noticing it, that mood changed. Upon rereading them in their collections, this really becomes more noticeable. Is this an accurate observation? What changed?
J: I guess Tony just brought me down.
Q: Are you aware of the web comic phenomenon and do you currently read any of them?
J: My boss doesn't let us use the Internet.
Q: Any cartoonist that went to college in the 90's was probably influenced by Jim's Journal. However, as more and more people publish their work to the net, we're amazed at how blatantly people will borrow from your work and present it as their own. How do you feel about that?
J: My stuff wasn't really any good.
Q: One of the things that's been floating around the web is a speech that Bill Watterson gave on the future of cartooning and where it needs to go. The thing infuriates me personally, as does his stance on how merchandising a comic strip cheapens it. Didn't you and he have some public debate on this matter?
J: I like Bill, but Tony thinks he's a pinko freak.
Q: It's no secret that Simon from Sesame Street sent you a letter when Jim's Journal first started in regards to the similarities between your strips at the time. Were you and he ever able to get past your differences and do you ever have any contact with him now?
J: I don't watch Sesame Street even though Ruth says it makes her laugh out loud. I don't know Simon.
Q: Assuming you were, at one point, a fan of Star Trek, are you still one now? How do you feel about the current state of the franchise?
J: Tony thinks that the new series sucks ass. I think he's a little worked up over it.
Q: We found out that Ruth was expecting in the fall of 2000. Doing some quick math, we can figure out pretty easily that you're a new "uncle". How is "unclehood" treating you?
J: I see less of Ruth now, but the baby is cute.
Q: What did you do for Valentine's Day?
J: I ignore Hallmark Holidays.
Q: What do you think of the current crop of comic strips in the paper right now? Which comics do you enjoy reading?
J: Most of them look like they were drawn by a nine-year old. I bet Ruth's baby could get published.
Q: Do you have any regrets about not drawing Jim's Journal any more? Do you miss it?
J: No.
Q: Are all the Jim's Journal strips that have appeared in newspapers available in your collections? If not, how did you decide which of your strips would be included the books?
J: Someone wants to read it again?
Q: Is there a chance that you would return to drawing a daily comic strip and would you consider doing it for the net instead of newspapers? In our opinion, it's a much better venue for the art.
J: Like I said, my boss doesn't let us use the Internet.
Q: I made a special trip to the library while in Madison to take a look at Academia Waltz. I think a lot of your fans would like to see that work. Is there a way for them to get a look at that without making the trek to Madison? It would make great material for a web site!
J: You should visit Madison, we've got good beer.
Q: We found a book called "Jim's Journal, Garfield, Doonesbury and All That Not Funny Stuff." in which the author presents your words from various book jackets and other magazine interviews in such a way that makes it look like he's interviewing you personally. Have you seen this thing?
J: I should have said less.
Q: You have a habit of not breaking yourself while engaging in your hobbies (i.e. reading, watching TV, baking brownies, etc.). Has your heart started beating yet? Have you toned things up a bit?
J: Nope.
Q: We notice that you're very active in the animal rights community. But also, we've heard a rumor that you kept an alligator in your apartment at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. At the time, the North American alligator was on the endangered species list (which probably wouldn't sit well with the PETA crowd). Could you tell us about the journey you took in becoming an animal rights activist? Was it just a ploy to meet a wife?
J: Tony lied about that to scare Ruth off.
Q: Does Ruth still own a cat? How do you keep everything free of cathair and mice corpses? My three year old tan and white (Kirby) spreads it around like nobody's business.
J: Ruth let the cat loose after the baby. I think it got ran over by a car.
-sk
You're absolutely correct, Nike is not trying to be humanitarian when it sets up a sweatshop in Bora Bora or whereever. They're trying to make a profit. Labor is so cheap in some of these third world countries that it makes up for all of the shipping costs involved.
But by virtue of setting up business there, Nike does help the countries out. Nike and others employ people in these countries who would otherwise be sitting around starving. Why is labor so cheap over there? Because it's so plentiful. Think about it, if you and 100,000 of your best friends were sitting around starving, and a company came in offering 1,000 jobs, they wouldn't have to pay very much to get you to apply. Maybe if more companies went over there to "exploit" the workers, the available labor pool would shrink enough that companies would be forced to pay more for labor.
And are the wages really all that low? Recall that Sally Struthers says I can feed a village for $10/month. In that economy someone making $1/day is wealthy.
-sk
1. To prepare and issue (printed material) for public distribution or sale.
2. To bring to the public attention; announce.
Despite FrontPage's nifty "Publish" command, I'd submit that a web site isn't published, it's uploaded.
For all the talk of "e-magazines" there is a vast difference between a web site and a magazine, and for that matter, a television magazine. That they're packaged differently by definition makes them different.
Wouldn't that be even more confusing? Click on your bookmark or hyperlink to eReferee.com and get a 404. I'd assume that eReferee.com had gone belly up, just like so many other sites. That seems overly punitive. Not only does eReferee lose it's domain, but Referee Mag wants them to lose their current user base.
-sk
Huh? eReferee is a website and Referee Magazine is a magazine. I realize that both are news sources, but how can you say that their both magazines? Is /. a magazine?
Web sites and magazine are vastly different things. A magazine requires a physical distribution network, printing presses, layout people, etc... A web site requires a server, a decent internet connection, network admins, etc... They may both be sources of information, but would eHistory.com infrige on The History Channel?
-sk
Exactly! Thanks for figuring out what I was trying to say.
-sk
Thanks for spoiling my trip down memory lane. Burn all Burger Time games!
-sk