"Say a pornographer places a billboard of a beautiful naked woman near the border between his agnostic nation with its liberal sex and speech laws, and a fanatically religious one with censorious blue laws and no freedom of speech. But he covers it up during the day and uncovers it only on cloudy, moonless nights.
Then say a person from the tyrannical nation starts showing up at the border on those nights with a flashlight and a pair of binoculars.
Who's breaking the law, here?"
If you're trolling, then good job. If you're being serious, your analogy is horribly flawed for the following reason
The Yahoo site involved in the lawsuit with the French government was not www.yahoo.com, it was www.yahoo.fr, The french language version of the portal. Yahoo operates offices in France and advertises the site in the French media. A more accurate version of your analogy would be if the pornographer placed the billboard in plain view, within the boarder of the conservative, tyrranical nation. If this were the case, would you still blame the persons who looked at the billboard as they were driving to work every morning?
"This is how internet works. All connections are client-server. Nothing gets done until the server receives that first SYN packet is sent by the client. After that, it can devolve to many kinds of virtual protocols, but that first connection has to be initiated by the client host."
While that may be true, Yahoo.fr advertises their site on other French sites, and on French television and print media. They are not only making the material available, but doing everything in their power to encourage people to view it.
Here in the USia, if I were to host kiddie porn on my FTP site and proceed to blame on those who downloaded my images, I would wind up in a federal jail very quickly.
There are some cases where the host of a site must be liable for it's content.
But seriously, why would anyone want to watch a TV series about other people going about their daily lives, doing nothing out of the ordinary. (No Seinfeld references, please). I grew quickly tired of The Sims because it seemed *way* too passive for my interests. I bought the game after hearing several friends rave about it, and I think I played for two or three hours before deleting it from my hard drive. Sim City was fun because you could build and design an entire metropolis (and destroy it;-) but The Sims lacks any sort of interesting qualities, because the characters aren't doing anything worth watching. My own life is boring enough without me sitting at the computer all day watching other people eat, go to work, and take a shit. Maxis usually makes decent games, but they definitely missed the boat when they though people would play a game that involves such uninteresting gameplay. A railgun or chainsaw would definitely make the game better in my opinion.
NASA writes all the software for the Space Shuttle's computers in-house. They do this because they NEED 100% reliability, and the only way you can guarantee that kind of reliability is to code it yourself.
Is that what you really think? I'm a huge Linux supporter (why else would I be reading this site), and I trust Linux' security enough to run it at home and at work, but there's a huge difference between being rooted by some script kiddies, and exposing national secrets to every terrorist organization in the world. I'd rather not take any chances if possible.
I feel that too much emphasis is being placed on processor speed today. An important processor is nice, but we need to take the emphasis off of multi-gigahertz processing, and take a step back to develop other components to the same technological advancement. We're rapidly approching a point where a two, five, or even ten gigahertz processor isn't going to improve performance, because it's no longer the limiting factor. I'd love to have my own processor made from single atom transistors, but first, we need to work on improving bus speeds, memory latency, and hard disk access time. Without all of these factors working in unison at high speeds, the only thing you're going to get from an ultrafast processor is a lighter wallet.
Just look at some of the benchmarks on Tom'sHardware. The majority of them are all dead even after processor speeds hit 8 or 9 hundred Mhz.
Some of the newer Athlon processors have 12x multipliers. That means the processor is working 12 times as fast as the rest of the system. This is wasteful, and you end up with a lot of dead processor cycles because the RAM/system bus can't provide enough data for processing. Manufacturer's need to stop throwing money at superfast processor development, and work on improving system bus speeds, and latency/throughput of RAM.
While it is quite remarkable that scientists have created a silicon buckyball, silicon buckyballs have almost no real-world applications. C12 based buckyballs have promising electrothermic and chemical properties which may potentially make them useful in the engineering of quantum computers or superconductors, but due to silicon's higher atomic mass and lower isotropic stability, it is virtually useless for these type of applications. To achieve true, electron-tunneling superconductivity through a non-porous simiconductor media, you need a tight molecular bonding structure that silicon simply cannot provide. Until scientists perfect the laboratory creation of chemically stable dilithium-tungsten crystals, we're going to be stuck with carbon. While the article scores major points for it's cool factor, it sadly has no real-world merit.
My point being that if/when Napster is shut down, there will be +-30 million users with the lust for free music fresh on their minds. Due to the inherent adaptive nature of the internet, they'll find somewhere to go, and if that place get's shut down, they'll find somewhere else.
This all harkens back to the pre-napster days of MP3 sharing where a Warez site would spring up, and a week later, it would be shut down only to turn up hosted on another server on another ISP. These people WILL find a way to get what they want. There's no stopping 30 million determined Americans.
When Unix was written, the GUI did not exist. Unix was written to be a command-line OS only. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, in fact, some people prefer the simplicity of command line scripting over an OS with an integrated GUI like Windows or MacOS. Due to hardware limitations when Unix was originally written, there was no other option. Even the most powerful computer in the 1970's could not provide the processing power required to support a GUI. Unix was a great operating system in it's day, but sadly, there are limits to what you can do with 30 year-old technology. It's time to let go and move on to technology that was created in the days of punch cards and processors that were measured in kilohertz. I think we should respect Unix for it's past greatness, and put it out to the pasture in favor of software that was written in this millennium.
To be honest, I'm quite disapointed to see all this interest in keeping records and high scores for video games. I've always thought of gaming as a way to have fun and relax after a hard day. It's truly sad to see that our society has become focused on competition that casual pastimes like video gaming are subject to such close scrutiny and rivalry.
I look back on my youth and some of my fondest memories involved staying up late having a sleepover at a friends house and playing video games until the sun came up. We did not care who scored the most points or who "fragged" the other players the most, but enjoyed the companionship and the act of playing the game itself. It's a shame that today's geeks feel the need to prove themselves by showing that they are better than everyone else. Not only is this childish and petty, but it ensures that at least one player does not have a good time playing.
Sorry if this sounds too wistful, but I just don't understand the desire for such trivial competitions.
I'm sorry, but I just don't like the idea of radio waves coming at me from every direction. Sure, wireless access is convenient, but I think we should hold off on deploying this technology on a wide scale until we understand more about the harm that can be done to humans who are under a constant barrage of harmful electronic signals.
Microwaves, X-rays, UV-rays, and cellular phones have already been linked to cancer. What other risks loom ahead of us in our effort to become "connected". It's a minor sacrifice to leave our laptops and PDA's at home for the sake of the safety of ourselves and our children. I can only hope and pray that this technology does not become even more popular only to have us find out that we have been poisoning ourselves in our greedy desire for convenience.
This is precisely the kind of genetic research we need to be doing. If a goat can be engineered to spin silk, the other possibilities that this technology allows will be invaluable to humanity. Think about it for a moment: Genetic alteration would allow us to breed animals with human organs. There will never be a waiting list for an organ transplant again. Genetically altered fruits and vegetables, which are already in the works, could bring an end to hunger worldwide. Research is already underway to create fruits that can prevent diseases simply by being eaten. I applaud the brave scientists who ignored political ballyhooing and did the right thing for the benefit of humanity.
After a we have learned a bit more, we will be able to use this technology on humans to prevent disease, birth defects, and genetically modify children to fit their parent's desires. Imagine if everyone was predetermined to be born strong, attractive, intelligent, and to live for hundreds of years. All of humanity's problems are soon to be solved. I, for one, cannot wait for the day when a genetically modified, super race of humans rules the earth.
Slashdot Mirror
Then say a person from the tyrannical nation starts showing up at the border on those nights with a flashlight and a pair of binoculars.
Who's breaking the law, here?"
If you're trolling, then good job. If you're being serious, your analogy is horribly flawed for the following reason
The Yahoo site involved in the lawsuit with the French government was not www.yahoo.com, it was www.yahoo.fr, The french language version of the portal. Yahoo operates offices in France and advertises the site in the French media. A more accurate version of your analogy would be if the pornographer placed the billboard in plain view, within the boarder of the conservative, tyrranical nation. If this were the case, would you still blame the persons who looked at the billboard as they were driving to work every morning?
"This is how internet works. All connections are client-server. Nothing gets done until the server receives that first SYN packet is sent by the client. After that, it can devolve to many kinds of virtual protocols, but that first connection has to be initiated by the client host."
While that may be true, Yahoo.fr advertises their site on other French sites, and on French television and print media. They are not only making the material available, but doing everything in their power to encourage people to view it.
Here in the USia, if I were to host kiddie porn on my FTP site and proceed to blame on those who downloaded my images, I would wind up in a federal jail very quickly.
There are some cases where the host of a site must be liable for it's content.
But seriously, why would anyone want to watch a TV series about other people going about their daily lives, doing nothing out of the ordinary. (No Seinfeld references, please). I grew quickly tired of The Sims because it seemed *way* too passive for my interests. I bought the game after hearing several friends rave about it, and I think I played for two or three hours before deleting it from my hard drive. Sim City was fun because you could build and design an entire metropolis (and destroy it ;-) but The Sims lacks any sort of interesting qualities, because the characters aren't doing anything worth watching. My own life is boring enough without me sitting at the computer all day watching other people eat, go to work, and take a shit. Maxis usually makes decent games, but they definitely missed the boat when they though people would play a game that involves such uninteresting gameplay. A railgun or chainsaw would definitely make the game better in my opinion.
That's true, but $800 is a hell of a deal for an HDTV set.
For a 27 inch HDTV, it's pretty damn cheap. Who cares about the imbedded WebTV crap. I'd get one just for the monitor.
NASA writes all the software for the Space Shuttle's computers in-house. They do this because they NEED 100% reliability, and the only way you can guarantee that kind of reliability is to code it yourself.
Is that what you really think? I'm a huge Linux supporter (why else would I be reading this site), and I trust Linux' security enough to run it at home and at work, but there's a huge difference between being rooted by some script kiddies, and exposing national secrets to every terrorist organization in the world. I'd rather not take any chances if possible.
Just look at some of the benchmarks on Tom'sHardware. The majority of them are all dead even after processor speeds hit 8 or 9 hundred Mhz.
Some of the newer Athlon processors have 12x multipliers. That means the processor is working 12 times as fast as the rest of the system. This is wasteful, and you end up with a lot of dead processor cycles because the RAM/system bus can't provide enough data for processing. Manufacturer's need to stop throwing money at superfast processor development, and work on improving system bus speeds, and latency/throughput of RAM.
Well what the hell am I supposed to use my Sony MP3 player with?
While it is quite remarkable that scientists have created a silicon buckyball, silicon buckyballs have almost no real-world applications. C12 based buckyballs have promising electrothermic and chemical properties which may potentially make them useful in the engineering of quantum computers or superconductors, but due to silicon's higher atomic mass and lower isotropic stability, it is virtually useless for these type of applications. To achieve true, electron-tunneling superconductivity through a non-porous simiconductor media, you need a tight molecular bonding structure that silicon simply cannot provide. Until scientists perfect the laboratory creation of chemically stable dilithium-tungsten crystals, we're going to be stuck with carbon. While the article scores major points for it's cool factor, it sadly has no real-world merit.
This all harkens back to the pre-napster days of MP3 sharing where a Warez site would spring up, and a week later, it would be shut down only to turn up hosted on another server on another ISP. These people WILL find a way to get what they want. There's no stopping 30 million determined Americans.
For every OpenNap server that is shut down, Ten more will open in it's place. No one, not even the RIAA can stop the spread of information.
Can someone explain to me how President of Nintendo=Ruthless Communist Dictator. Maybe I missed something in the interview.
When Unix was written, the GUI did not exist. Unix was written to be a command-line OS only. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, in fact, some people prefer the simplicity of command line scripting over an OS with an integrated GUI like Windows or MacOS. Due to hardware limitations when Unix was originally written, there was no other option. Even the most powerful computer in the 1970's could not provide the processing power required to support a GUI. Unix was a great operating system in it's day, but sadly, there are limits to what you can do with 30 year-old technology. It's time to let go and move on to technology that was created in the days of punch cards and processors that were measured in kilohertz. I think we should respect Unix for it's past greatness, and put it out to the pasture in favor of software that was written in this millennium.
I look back on my youth and some of my fondest memories involved staying up late having a sleepover at a friends house and playing video games until the sun came up. We did not care who scored the most points or who "fragged" the other players the most, but enjoyed the companionship and the act of playing the game itself. It's a shame that today's geeks feel the need to prove themselves by showing that they are better than everyone else. Not only is this childish and petty, but it ensures that at least one player does not have a good time playing.
Sorry if this sounds too wistful, but I just don't understand the desire for such trivial competitions.
Microwaves, X-rays, UV-rays, and cellular phones have already been linked to cancer. What other risks loom ahead of us in our effort to become "connected". It's a minor sacrifice to leave our laptops and PDA's at home for the sake of the safety of ourselves and our children. I can only hope and pray that this technology does not become even more popular only to have us find out that we have been poisoning ourselves in our greedy desire for convenience.
After a we have learned a bit more, we will be able to use this technology on humans to prevent disease, birth defects, and genetically modify children to fit their parent's desires. Imagine if everyone was predetermined to be born strong, attractive, intelligent, and to live for hundreds of years. All of humanity's problems are soon to be solved. I, for one, cannot wait for the day when a genetically modified, super race of humans rules the earth.