As a current student I can tell you that things have changed very little since your graduation. I'm living on grounds (campus for your non-UVA types) right now and in the basement of my building there's a few posters talking about Honor's impact on minorities. I see the African American community and the Hispanic community are suffering particularly badly this year.
There's a lot of talk here about what this type of thing will do to the system. Many are saying that the media attention and the massive scandle will force a lot of these cases to the jury without sufficient proof (i.e. the cases of those that wrote the origional material). The worry is that juries, being comprised of students, will prosecute because they've read about this in the news, and the system will loose credibility in the student body.
The other potential nightmare is the opposite. Media attention focus' on UVA and, despite the best efforts of the Honor counsil, none of the charges pan out. Case flops. What then?
There's a lot to be said for this kind of technological enforcement. It's important. The system, no matter how based on trust, must have a measure of enforcement to work. Enforcement requires investigation. UVA prides itself on its ability to allow students to take great liberties based on the trust confired from the honor system. I take most of my exams in my dorm room on my computer. It's much nicer then writing the damn things out in a bue book and it's much more comfortable as well.
There's not much more I can add to this. I can tell you all with certainty that these cases will see trial. I can also say with reasonabl certanty that some of them will end in expulsion and/or revocation of the degree. It is the number of them, and the satisfaction of the news media with that percentage that will make or break this institution in the coming year.
Augh, some people (not the parrent, the other children) just don't get it do they.
The point is not that the cops can tell you how fast you can and can't drive. That dosn't matter. That has been going on since the birth of the free market.
The point is that, if I buy a car from Company X I can drive it fiarly irespective of what company X says. What's going on here, is that Company X, which has close ties to company Y (a fuel consortium that dominates the market) has gotten company Y to stop producing fuel that my car will take. Thus invalidating my purchace.
The fear is that there will be no phase out period. And there won't be! Once the technology exists in a production model who's going to stop the MPAA from releasing only formats that work with the new monitors?
The laws of robotics are one of Asimov's better ideas. The basic premice is this, Robots are self aware critters. Essentialy they are as smart (smarter) than you or me.
Smart though they are, they are bounded by these three laws. Now these laws are so integral to their programing that Robots will go --way-- out of their way to make sure they are fufilled. Hell, all you have to do is check the order to see that a Robot will give its "life" for a human being.
So Robots won't breed like bunnies because they will realize that this could consume resources and thus harm the human race. This violates law 1, so it won't happen. Robots will make more robots, but they won't do it in such a way as to impinge on human beings.
But in relation to your forth law, there is a Zeroth law (Not pronounced Z-Roth, pronounced Zero-ith) law of Robotics. It states that a robot may not allow the Human Race to come to harm and that it may violate ANY of the three laws necessary to ensure the safty of humanity. Bizarre. But that's Asimov for you:-)
The Laws of Robotics:
1) A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Ok.... that frist one would make this whole "bomb people" objective pretty difficult. I'm sure this is revisable. "A Robot may not injure a United States citizen or ally, or through inaction allow such a person to come to harm. Unless of course we tell it to, or it compelling circumstance as defined by the United States Government, constituent bodies of such government, or the random whims of the vice chair of the senate committee on national defence.... other circumstace may be defined...."
This is true. Well, no, not really, but it got really close.
If the MPAA "fought technology with technology" by utilizing CSS that would be fine with me. Great, ok, so people can copy movies, we'll just make it HARD. Thus fewer people will copy movies. Lets leave trading movies P2P out of this, the time involved is prohibitive with most people's connections (56k is still the standard right?).
But when they start using lawyers to press felony charges on kids... they start looking bad. Now, don't get me wrong, they are legaly within their rights. But remember, there are three major court systems in this country. State/Local courts (on the MPAAs side), Federal Courts (also on their side, at least for now), and the Court of Public Opinion. That last one is getting pretty pissed off at them and the RIAA.
We'll see... I think it's going to take one nasty arrest of an otherwise perfectly respectable looking white collar pre-law student with a 4.0 and a lifetime membership in the debate society to destroy the MPAAs credibility with the general public. After that, their lawyers won't be able to stand up to the grassroots outrage.
the worship of Roman gods be a recognized religion, and as such be exempt from taxation?
Worship of "pagen" gods or whathave you is protected speach/religion in the US, provided that any sacrifices etc to this god are done in a manner consistent with local/state/federal food preperation guidelines.
As for polygamy, it was ruled to be illegal and unprotected because of the fact that marriages do not need to be preformed in a place of worship. Marriage, argued the court, is a social contract, not necessarily a religious one, and is thus regulateable by the government.
Yea yea yea... I know offtopic. Sorry, just wanted to clear this up.
Oh, and being Catholic myself, I can tell you that while we don't reguard Fundamentalists as "devil worshipers" I generaly support them in their efforts to seek professional counseling.
they should give Senators and Representatives e-training classes to make them more aware of current issues and get them to check their friggin' e-mails
Actualy, I'd be willing to let them allocate a totaly unreasonable amount of money just to get their email addresses posted in a reasonably logical fassion. My representive is Robert Goodlatte of Virginia. Now if you follow the provided link you'll find a cutsy little page that his staff has set up. But if you try to e-mail him you get thrown into a little web-craplet which will allow you to email him. Why oh why don't they just give me his flippin address so I can email him myself????
I'm sorry, for someone with his list of credientials I'm really shocked he's not more attuned to those of us who actualy have our own email accounts and harbor a deep and personal hatred of webmail.
I belive it was Plato that said "If the people are given the right to choose their rulers they will elect fools and naives."
No, companies have always been run by one of two types.
1.) Moronic fools woh haven't the vaugest idea of what they're doing. Yea, they are marketing weenies, but that's corporate evolution for you.
2.) Evil corporate super-bosses with offices done in a nice oak pattern and cybernetic rocket launchers implanted in their sholders. Duck behind the tasetfull palm tree and snag the chain gun and extra ammo hidden there. Remember to target the glowing "$" in his chest as you stay low and to the left to avoid the laser spray from the two secritary mini-bosses
This is so true. A computer program is the juxtoposition of art and poetry. It serves to interpret and generate information, and yet at the same time is an elegent construct of its own.
In answer to the DMCA's accusations that DeCSS has the potential to cause serious harm I present the case of Martial Arts. A Martial Art is, first and foremost, an Art unto itself. There is a beauty, and elegence about a Kata well preformed. The fluid motion of the body in conjunction with the simplicity of the motions is pleasing to the eye and mind of the viewer. At the same time the Kata and the Art are both functional, they provide a means to self defence. Indeed, they provide a potent and lethal force, that, just liket the DeCSS is subject to abuse.
Congress does not prohibit the right of the people assemble, nor does it prohibit the right of the people to publish books on the ethics, techniques, and forms of the many diverse martial arts. Martial Arts are clearly an art form, they are clearly also a dangerous weapon. I am of the opinion that the government has a compelling interest in the defence of its citizens, yet martial arts remains unregluated in this country. Why then, should DeCSS be regulated? Without any clear examples of piracy what is being threatened? Even assuming such examples could be provided, which they have not been, is code any less worthy of protection then the Martial Arts?
Computer Code, like a Martial Art, is subject to abuse, this is true. Also like a Martial Art it is an art form in and of itself. Just as an observer can see beauty in watching a Kata preformed so also can an observer see beauty in watching a well wrriten program execute. Also, just as a master instructor can see a more subtle and profound beauty in a Kata so also can a programmer see a greater subtletly and beauty in a well written code. Not all art must appeal to the masses in order to be considered art.
Oh... and on a side note. "Digital Crowbar?" Yea, you'll note that you can buy a crowbar in any hardware store and publishing or linking to plans to make your own crowbar is not considered a crime.
See, I've been waiting for this for a while, and I've come to the conclusion I should patent it. We're all (clearly) familiar with the idea of distinctive rings for cell phones, and I'm pretty sure I've seen combo Taser/Cell Phones (at least in Japan, maybe not here). So what I'm thinking is "distinctive stun." A lot of people complain about not being able to feel the vibrate mode, especialy if the phone is clipped on to a belt or somesuch. So what this would do is send a distinctive pattern of high voltage electrical shocks into the users body to allert them to a call. I genuinely belive this would solve the problem of annoying cell phone users in public places.
Think about it. You sell PCs in masse. Someone comes in and asks for your bid on 500 PCs w/out an OS for Company X. They make no mention of a site license.
Now you remember this letter your got from M$FT a while ago. You read it over, and you say to your self. "Self: IANAL. Nonetheless, this looks a great deal like what M$FT is talking about. And while he didn't SAY he had a license, he didn't say he didn't either. What the hell, it's only a phonecall/email"
We shall soon see a new breed rising in the technical community. They are not Karma Whores, they are "matching lawn chair and grill whores."
Penguin computing's systems come with those lovely Tux Keys instead of Windows Keys. I've been hounding them to sell the damn things wholesale to ThinkGeek so we Windophobes can pry the damn MS Keys off for something more.... enjoyable.
Ummmmmmmmmmmm.... no. Well, yes and no, but no for simplicity. Now it's been a while since I had that course on US/China in the Cold War, but if I recall correctly China works something like this.
While a primarily Communist (Read As: Maoist) country, the PRC has several "zones of free enterprise" or somesuch. These zones allow the Chinese economy to interact with the outside world in much the same way that the USSRs different currencies allowed it to trade with Europe and the West.
But in a socialist country who owns these areas? The wealthy own them, and who else can be wealthy in a Communist nation but the govorning elite. The same govorning elite who want to control the information.
So while the cafees are privately owned, I'd be shocked if their policy differed substantialy from that of the government.
Censorship is nothing new to the Chinese government. As for what we can do? Little. It is because of the Chinese government's willingness to go to extreme measures, even deadly force, to keep social disidents in line that mainland China is still the PRC.
Information may want to be free, but so do several hundred million chinese. Since they several hundred million don't seem to have a chance in hell I wouldn't bet on the information as of yet.
I know stock prices aren't everything, but take a look at the 52 week highs on both of these. Giants indeed. Look up MSFT if you're feeling particularly self depreciating.... sigh.... An army of Visigoths needs to sac Redmond.
In any academic circle the publication date is the date that a researcher sets his/her claim on the findings.
If someone else publishes before you, even if they stole your work, it's very hard to demonstrate that the discovery really was yours.
But why do scientists care if they are credited with the discovery? Well, besides the simply fact that we all like to be rewarded for our work, most Professors (which is what most scientists are) are expected to keep up a publication rate as part of their job. Failure to do research (i.e. publish research) usualy won't result in being fired (the joys of tenure) but can result in loss of raises etc.
So what scientists want is a way to publish their work in a manner that dates it and garuntees recognition of publication by an outside authority. They also want to have these papers, which they provided, available in a small number of searchable formats to allow for quick access without thousands of bulky journals filling their offices.
Just a clairification... Sounds like the parrent poster got screwed over by a Prof... so perhaps this is a litte less biased
Yes, the War on Drugs is expensive, but that's because drugs are so addictive that people can't seem to stop taking them
No, the war on drugs is expensive because there's money to be made off of it by our nations politicians and their croneys. This nation has a habit of declaring "war" on the most mindless shit in order to drum up public support. Since drugs are an emotionaly charged topic they get draged up around election time every year.
Fundamentaly the Drug problem represents a choice that this country must make. The people clamor for the government to "protect" them from this menace, but how? The United States and thousands of miles of coast line, most of which is totaly undefended. Substances move through our interior with virtualy no check on them. In order to stop the drug trade and "win" this so called "war." The US will have to secure her boarders tightly enough to stop the drug trade and police more stringently inside the boarders to stop internaly grown drugs from moving from place to place.
In short, you must choose between your freedom as it currently exists, or a drug free society.
Of course, we could try something like really implementing some serious social welfare programs to help raise some of these poorer kids out of the squalid neighborhoods that we always identify with the drug problem. Hell, we could siphon the money off of the rich white families in upper class suburbs whos kids are into the exact same stuff. Perhaps elimating the rediculously privilaged and the rediculously underprivilaed would contribute to removing this problem. But then, there's no defence contracts or military bases in that plan to make the politicians popular, rich, and powerfull.
Does this sound a lot like me putting a sign in my front yard reading "New security system installed; if you can break in I'll pay you $500" and then pressing breaking and entering charges when someone actualy breaks in to anyone else?
do_ramble(Mp3 Napster) {
Anyone who's watching poster names will find this a bit redundant coming from me, but what the hell
It has become appauling clear that Napster execs did very poorly in their highschool history classes.
Before the mp3 craze (I am still cautious about the word revolution) music was obtainable illegaly only with great difficulty. Ok, not great difficulty, but it was a hassle. Then came the MP3. The grip of the record industry on copy right loosened. The customers were freeer to pick and choose among thousands of artists. With the RIAA crackdown on Napster and the MP3 community, these freedoms evaporated.
Now why am I using the word freedom? These things I'm talking about are not freedoms in any technical respect. But, and this is the important part, they seemed that way to the users of the product, especialy those who are not familiar with copyright law.
Now history teaches us that when you take freedoms away from people bad things happen. This model is paralell to the Soviet Union's problems. (Before I launch into this, I am not equating the RIAA to Joseph Stalin nor am I saying that the two experiances are even remotely similar. Mearly that they work on the same model). Stalin's opression of the Soviet people sets the stage, just as the origional difficulty in copying and sampleing music does in the current model. After Stalin the pressure slowly came off the people of the USSR as their freedoms returned (slowly). Sililarly, as Mp3 caught on, more and more people began to use encoders etc, and the utilities became readily available. Gorbachev's attempted crackdown however, demonstrated that, once the pressure is off it must stay off. Revolts erupted, and the government was overthrown. In our paralell model we are coming on to this last stage. The RIAA is cracking down and these privilages that so many "netizens" are used to are evaporating. Open Nap is one responce, but I expect to see something more revolutionary than that.
Many have said that the tens of millions of people on the net who download and love their MP3s could form a powerfull lobby. I wonder if that will even come to fruition.
return 0; }
John Lennon late in his career had an inventor he called "Magic Alex" he threw money at. Among such ideas such as flying saucers, anti-grav devices, and a sixteen track sixteen speaker stero, Lennon asked "Magic Alex" to try to build something he called loudpaper.
Loudpaper was supposed to be a wallpaper that you could jack your stero into, turing a whole wall into a speaker. Sounds like John's smiling down on this one.
NASA could probably save a few million by just poping some high temp tolerant MEMS on that sucker and getting a data feed from it all the way to the ocean.
That's a bit to expensive to do to the entire airfleet. So we have people who only go look at the ones that break. Much cheeper that way. Since NASA knows this one is going to be rubble they can fit it out with some MEMs tech and find out how things went.
On a side note. A ram jet smacking into the ocean at mach X (where X is large) is going to make a BIG hole in the ocean (at least until the water rushes in). Maybe CNN will have a plane in the area so we can view pretty MPEG footage:-)
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Re:Scramjets are wasteful, and the wrong direction
on
X-43 Scramjet Rollout
·
· Score: 1
Yes, the reason we don't have a real hotel in orbit in 2001 is because space development is moving at the speed of governments. If Pan Am had been flying space shuttles there would be a lot more activity above the atmosphere.
Yea.... but that activity would be filing for bankruptcy.
That and Pan Am's "Challanger 103" would have made a bigass crater in Scotland.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
Always nice to see a 'hoo on the boards :-)
As a current student I can tell you that things have changed very little since your graduation. I'm living on grounds (campus for your non-UVA types) right now and in the basement of my building there's a few posters talking about Honor's impact on minorities. I see the African American community and the Hispanic community are suffering particularly badly this year.
There's a lot of talk here about what this type of thing will do to the system. Many are saying that the media attention and the massive scandle will force a lot of these cases to the jury without sufficient proof (i.e. the cases of those that wrote the origional material). The worry is that juries, being comprised of students, will prosecute because they've read about this in the news, and the system will loose credibility in the student body.
The other potential nightmare is the opposite. Media attention focus' on UVA and, despite the best efforts of the Honor counsil, none of the charges pan out. Case flops. What then?
There's a lot to be said for this kind of technological enforcement. It's important. The system, no matter how based on trust, must have a measure of enforcement to work. Enforcement requires investigation. UVA prides itself on its ability to allow students to take great liberties based on the trust confired from the honor system. I take most of my exams in my dorm room on my computer. It's much nicer then writing the damn things out in a bue book and it's much more comfortable as well.
There's not much more I can add to this. I can tell you all with certainty that these cases will see trial. I can also say with reasonabl certanty that some of them will end in expulsion and/or revocation of the degree. It is the number of them, and the satisfaction of the news media with that percentage that will make or break this institution in the coming year.
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Augh, some people (not the parrent, the other children) just don't get it do they.
The point is not that the cops can tell you how fast you can and can't drive. That dosn't matter. That has been going on since the birth of the free market.
The point is that, if I buy a car from Company X I can drive it fiarly irespective of what company X says. What's going on here, is that Company X, which has close ties to company Y (a fuel consortium that dominates the market) has gotten company Y to stop producing fuel that my car will take. Thus invalidating my purchace.
The fear is that there will be no phase out period. And there won't be! Once the technology exists in a production model who's going to stop the MPAA from releasing only formats that work with the new monitors?
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And the topic wanders further astray....
:-)
The laws of robotics are one of Asimov's better ideas. The basic premice is this, Robots are self aware critters. Essentialy they are as smart (smarter) than you or me.
Smart though they are, they are bounded by these three laws. Now these laws are so integral to their programing that Robots will go --way-- out of their way to make sure they are fufilled. Hell, all you have to do is check the order to see that a Robot will give its "life" for a human being.
So Robots won't breed like bunnies because they will realize that this could consume resources and thus harm the human race. This violates law 1, so it won't happen. Robots will make more robots, but they won't do it in such a way as to impinge on human beings.
But in relation to your forth law, there is a Zeroth law (Not pronounced Z-Roth, pronounced Zero-ith) law of Robotics. It states that a robot may not allow the Human Race to come to harm and that it may violate ANY of the three laws necessary to ensure the safty of humanity. Bizarre. But that's Asimov for you
Yea yea yea... off topic... I know...
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The Laws of Robotics:
1) A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Ok.... that frist one would make this whole "bomb people" objective pretty difficult. I'm sure this is revisable. "A Robot may not injure a United States citizen or ally, or through inaction allow such a person to come to harm. Unless of course we tell it to, or it compelling circumstance as defined by the United States Government, constituent bodies of such government, or the random whims of the vice chair of the senate committee on national defence.... other circumstace may be defined...."
Sigh.... "open the bomb bay doors Hal..."
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This is true. Well, no, not really, but it got really close.
If the MPAA "fought technology with technology" by utilizing CSS that would be fine with me. Great, ok, so people can copy movies, we'll just make it HARD. Thus fewer people will copy movies. Lets leave trading movies P2P out of this, the time involved is prohibitive with most people's connections (56k is still the standard right?).
But when they start using lawyers to press felony charges on kids... they start looking bad. Now, don't get me wrong, they are legaly within their rights. But remember, there are three major court systems in this country. State/Local courts (on the MPAAs side), Federal Courts (also on their side, at least for now), and the Court of Public Opinion. That last one is getting pretty pissed off at them and the RIAA.
We'll see... I think it's going to take one nasty arrest of an otherwise perfectly respectable looking white collar pre-law student with a 4.0 and a lifetime membership in the debate society to destroy the MPAAs credibility with the general public. After that, their lawyers won't be able to stand up to the grassroots outrage.
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the worship of Roman gods be a recognized religion, and as such be exempt from taxation?
Worship of "pagen" gods or whathave you is protected speach/religion in the US, provided that any sacrifices etc to this god are done in a manner consistent with local/state/federal food preperation guidelines.
As for polygamy, it was ruled to be illegal and unprotected because of the fact that marriages do not need to be preformed in a place of worship. Marriage, argued the court, is a social contract, not necessarily a religious one, and is thus regulateable by the government.
Yea yea yea... I know offtopic. Sorry, just wanted to clear this up.
Oh, and being Catholic myself, I can tell you that while we don't reguard Fundamentalists as "devil worshipers" I generaly support them in their efforts to seek professional counseling.
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they should give Senators and Representatives e-training classes to make them more aware of current issues and get them to check their friggin' e-mails
Actualy, I'd be willing to let them allocate a totaly unreasonable amount of money just to get their email addresses posted in a reasonably logical fassion. My representive is Robert Goodlatte of Virginia. Now if you follow the provided link you'll find a cutsy little page that his staff has set up. But if you try to e-mail him you get thrown into a little web-craplet which will allow you to email him. Why oh why don't they just give me his flippin address so I can email him myself????
I'm sorry, for someone with his list of credientials I'm really shocked he's not more attuned to those of us who actualy have our own email accounts and harbor a deep and personal hatred of webmail.
I belive it was Plato that said "If the people are given the right to choose their rulers they will elect fools and naives."
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No, companies have always been run by one of two types.
1.) Moronic fools woh haven't the vaugest idea of what they're doing. Yea, they are marketing weenies, but that's corporate evolution for you.
2.) Evil corporate super-bosses with offices done in a nice oak pattern and cybernetic rocket launchers implanted in their sholders. Duck behind the tasetfull palm tree and snag the chain gun and extra ammo hidden there. Remember to target the glowing "$" in his chest as you stay low and to the left to avoid the laser spray from the two secritary mini-bosses
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This is so true. A computer program is the juxtoposition of art and poetry. It serves to interpret and generate information, and yet at the same time is an elegent construct of its own.
In answer to the DMCA's accusations that DeCSS has the potential to cause serious harm I present the case of Martial Arts. A Martial Art is, first and foremost, an Art unto itself. There is a beauty, and elegence about a Kata well preformed. The fluid motion of the body in conjunction with the simplicity of the motions is pleasing to the eye and mind of the viewer. At the same time the Kata and the Art are both functional, they provide a means to self defence. Indeed, they provide a potent and lethal force, that, just liket the DeCSS is subject to abuse.
Congress does not prohibit the right of the people assemble, nor does it prohibit the right of the people to publish books on the ethics, techniques, and forms of the many diverse martial arts. Martial Arts are clearly an art form, they are clearly also a dangerous weapon. I am of the opinion that the government has a compelling interest in the defence of its citizens, yet martial arts remains unregluated in this country. Why then, should DeCSS be regulated? Without any clear examples of piracy what is being threatened? Even assuming such examples could be provided, which they have not been, is code any less worthy of protection then the Martial Arts?
Computer Code, like a Martial Art, is subject to abuse, this is true. Also like a Martial Art it is an art form in and of itself. Just as an observer can see beauty in watching a Kata preformed so also can an observer see beauty in watching a well wrriten program execute. Also, just as a master instructor can see a more subtle and profound beauty in a Kata so also can a programmer see a greater subtletly and beauty in a well written code. Not all art must appeal to the masses in order to be considered art.
Oh... and on a side note. "Digital Crowbar?" Yea, you'll note that you can buy a crowbar in any hardware store and publishing or linking to plans to make your own crowbar is not considered a crime.
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See, I've been waiting for this for a while, and I've come to the conclusion I should patent it. We're all (clearly) familiar with the idea of distinctive rings for cell phones, and I'm pretty sure I've seen combo Taser/Cell Phones (at least in Japan, maybe not here). So what I'm thinking is "distinctive stun." A lot of people complain about not being able to feel the vibrate mode, especialy if the phone is clipped on to a belt or somesuch. So what this would do is send a distinctive pattern of high voltage electrical shocks into the users body to allert them to a call. I genuinely belive this would solve the problem of annoying cell phone users in public places.
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Think about it. You sell PCs in masse. Someone comes in and asks for your bid on 500 PCs w/out an OS for Company X. They make no mention of a site license.
Now you remember this letter your got from M$FT a while ago. You read it over, and you say to your self. "Self: IANAL. Nonetheless, this looks a great deal like what M$FT is talking about. And while he didn't SAY he had a license, he didn't say he didn't either. What the hell, it's only a phonecall/email"
We shall soon see a new breed rising in the technical community. They are not Karma Whores, they are "matching lawn chair and grill whores."
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Penguin computing's systems come with those lovely Tux Keys instead of Windows Keys. I've been hounding them to sell the damn things wholesale to ThinkGeek so we Windophobes can pry the damn MS Keys off for something more.... enjoyable.
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Internet cafes in China are privately owned
Ummmmmmmmmmmm.... no. Well, yes and no, but no for simplicity. Now it's been a while since I had that course on US/China in the Cold War, but if I recall correctly China works something like this.
While a primarily Communist (Read As: Maoist) country, the PRC has several "zones of free enterprise" or somesuch. These zones allow the Chinese economy to interact with the outside world in much the same way that the USSRs different currencies allowed it to trade with Europe and the West.
But in a socialist country who owns these areas? The wealthy own them, and who else can be wealthy in a Communist nation but the govorning elite. The same govorning elite who want to control the information.
So while the cafees are privately owned, I'd be shocked if their policy differed substantialy from that of the government.
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Censorship is nothing new to the Chinese government. As for what we can do? Little. It is because of the Chinese government's willingness to go to extreme measures, even deadly force, to keep social disidents in line that mainland China is still the PRC.
Information may want to be free, but so do several hundred million chinese. Since they several hundred million don't seem to have a chance in hell I wouldn't bet on the information as of yet.
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Gee, that would fit great. The Russian Space Program was just like Microsoft. Bloted, inefficient, and always behind schedual! :-)
Disclaimer: I can't spell worth a shirt.
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VA Linux - LNUX
Red Hat Linux - RHAT
I know stock prices aren't everything, but take a look at the 52 week highs on both of these. Giants indeed. Look up MSFT if you're feeling particularly self depreciating.... sigh.... An army of Visigoths needs to sac Redmond.
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"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
--Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899
You related to this guy?
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In any academic circle the publication date is the date that a researcher sets his/her claim on the findings.
If someone else publishes before you, even if they stole your work, it's very hard to demonstrate that the discovery really was yours.
But why do scientists care if they are credited with the discovery? Well, besides the simply fact that we all like to be rewarded for our work, most Professors (which is what most scientists are) are expected to keep up a publication rate as part of their job. Failure to do research (i.e. publish research) usualy won't result in being fired (the joys of tenure) but can result in loss of raises etc.
So what scientists want is a way to publish their work in a manner that dates it and garuntees recognition of publication by an outside authority. They also want to have these papers, which they provided, available in a small number of searchable formats to allow for quick access without thousands of bulky journals filling their offices.
Just a clairification... Sounds like the parrent poster got screwed over by a Prof... so perhaps this is a litte less biased
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Yes, the War on Drugs is expensive, but that's because drugs are so addictive that people can't seem to stop taking them
No, the war on drugs is expensive because there's money to be made off of it by our nations politicians and their croneys. This nation has a habit of declaring "war" on the most mindless shit in order to drum up public support. Since drugs are an emotionaly charged topic they get draged up around election time every year.
Fundamentaly the Drug problem represents a choice that this country must make. The people clamor for the government to "protect" them from this menace, but how? The United States and thousands of miles of coast line, most of which is totaly undefended. Substances move through our interior with virtualy no check on them. In order to stop the drug trade and "win" this so called "war." The US will have to secure her boarders tightly enough to stop the drug trade and police more stringently inside the boarders to stop internaly grown drugs from moving from place to place.
In short, you must choose between your freedom as it currently exists, or a drug free society.
Of course, we could try something like really implementing some serious social welfare programs to help raise some of these poorer kids out of the squalid neighborhoods that we always identify with the drug problem. Hell, we could siphon the money off of the rich white families in upper class suburbs whos kids are into the exact same stuff. Perhaps elimating the rediculously privilaged and the rediculously underprivilaed would contribute to removing this problem. But then, there's no defence contracts or military bases in that plan to make the politicians popular, rich, and powerfull.
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Does this sound a lot like me putting a sign in my front yard reading "New security system installed; if you can break in I'll pay you $500" and then pressing breaking and entering charges when someone actualy breaks in to anyone else?
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do_ramble(Mp3 Napster)
{
Anyone who's watching poster names will find this a bit redundant coming from me, but what the hell
It has become appauling clear that Napster execs did very poorly in their highschool history classes.
Before the mp3 craze (I am still cautious about the word revolution) music was obtainable illegaly only with great difficulty. Ok, not great difficulty, but it was a hassle. Then came the MP3. The grip of the record industry on copy right loosened. The customers were freeer to pick and choose among thousands of artists. With the RIAA crackdown on Napster and the MP3 community, these freedoms evaporated.
Now why am I using the word freedom? These things I'm talking about are not freedoms in any technical respect. But, and this is the important part, they seemed that way to the users of the product, especialy those who are not familiar with copyright law.
Now history teaches us that when you take freedoms away from people bad things happen. This model is paralell to the Soviet Union's problems. (Before I launch into this, I am not equating the RIAA to Joseph Stalin nor am I saying that the two experiances are even remotely similar. Mearly that they work on the same model). Stalin's opression of the Soviet people sets the stage, just as the origional difficulty in copying and sampleing music does in the current model. After Stalin the pressure slowly came off the people of the USSR as their freedoms returned (slowly). Sililarly, as Mp3 caught on, more and more people began to use encoders etc, and the utilities became readily available. Gorbachev's attempted crackdown however, demonstrated that, once the pressure is off it must stay off. Revolts erupted, and the government was overthrown. In our paralell model we are coming on to this last stage. The RIAA is cracking down and these privilages that so many "netizens" are used to are evaporating. Open Nap is one responce, but I expect to see something more revolutionary than that.
Many have said that the tens of millions of people on the net who download and love their MP3s could form a powerfull lobby. I wonder if that will even come to fruition.
return 0;
}
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What do they need long range missiles for? Pakistan's not THAT far away!
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John Lennon late in his career had an inventor he called "Magic Alex" he threw money at. Among such ideas such as flying saucers, anti-grav devices, and a sixteen track sixteen speaker stero, Lennon asked "Magic Alex" to try to build something he called loudpaper.
Loudpaper was supposed to be a wallpaper that you could jack your stero into, turing a whole wall into a speaker. Sounds like John's smiling down on this one.
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NASA could probably save a few million by just poping some high temp tolerant MEMS on that sucker and getting a data feed from it all the way to the ocean.
:-)
That's a bit to expensive to do to the entire airfleet. So we have people who only go look at the ones that break. Much cheeper that way. Since NASA knows this one is going to be rubble they can fit it out with some MEMs tech and find out how things went.
On a side note. A ram jet smacking into the ocean at mach X (where X is large) is going to make a BIG hole in the ocean (at least until the water rushes in). Maybe CNN will have a plane in the area so we can view pretty MPEG footage
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Yes, the reason we don't have a real hotel in orbit in 2001 is because space development is moving at the speed of governments. If Pan Am had been flying space shuttles there would be a lot more activity above the atmosphere.
:-)
Yea.... but that activity would be filing for bankruptcy.
That and Pan Am's "Challanger 103" would have made a bigass crater in Scotland.
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