It seems like ppl here get more up in arms than the NRA supporters (no pun intended). Ppl have to understand that some correlation will be done no matter what, regulating this and making it public is better than letting the FBI run amock with there computers and our data.
Speaking as one of those NRA supporters... Because it's been officially announced give us even more reason to complain. Before, we could only speculate and then be shrugged off as paranoid. Now, we can say, "see, they can watch us!"
Every payday, I go to my credit union and take out everything but the little money I have automatically withdrawn towards a mutual fund. I then go the the post office and pony up $0.90 for each money order and mail my bills. Of course I hand-deliver some of my bills and paymemts, where the banks have local branches.
When I first started doing this, it was a little odd and inconvenient. Now, I feel a great sense of liberty. Excepting my bills, nobody knows what the hell I'm doing with my money. Cash transactions are a lot faster at stores, plus there's always money on-hand.
Ever since the "Know Your Customer" initiative a few years back, and since learning about SARs, I've become even more wary of financial institutions. It's gotten to the point where I'm thinking about socking away my savings (which goes now into mutual funds) into a safe. Mr. Ashcroft can look at my records all he wants and he won't see much. Losing a little bit of interest is worth it to me, in order that I may have a little more privacy in this witch-hunt government we now have to live with.
I don't like the fact that: 1) My financial history can be reviewed on a whim; and 2) My assets can be siezed almost on a whim. Look at those poor folks in South America, whose banks throttled their own money usage. I won't ever be caught in that situation.
I usually don't have that much money on-hand, so all you scare-mongers can hold back on the "what if you get mugged" thing. I pay all bills and do any essential expenditures that same day (the big grocery spree, getting car tuned, etc.).
If only I could force my employer to pay in cash. They recently began requiring direct deposit!
This ticks me off. Why don't the gun manufactures pay a tax to banks and insurence companies because guns are used to rob banks and kill people?
Sorry I can't dig up the reference at work, but I read in some NRA rag that there is a tax of sorts on either firearms and/or ammo. The article talked about how much of a scandle this is because the money was supposed to go to support wildlife/wilderness management (I guess all of us gun owners are assumed responsible for the ruining of nature -- never mind those SUV's) However, the funds are in reality used for politcal pork, and not to help the park service, etc.
The mid-to-late 90's saw several trends not mentioned in the article.
First the number of software users shot up dramatically. Paritally because of the tech boom, partially because computer use wasn't confined to 'leet CS and engineering geeks. With that, the average ability to locate warez, cracks, or to crack themselves dropped, just like internet users at that time (what year did the "endless September" arrive?). BBS's and USENET, both major warez mediums, while still there, are not used by the common computer user anymore.
Plus, all the wealth in the late 90's made it easier for Jr. in college to ask Daddy for the several hundred $ for MS Office.
I'm sure the student discounts help -- a little. But that might be artifically skewing the results. Having been an student and an employee for a university, I know it's not uncommon for both to purchase that $100 copy of Adobe Photoshop for the guy next door, who would otherwise need to pay $700 (or whatever it is now). It does prove that a better price will sell better, though.
Install Postfix, subscribe to a RBL, and get on with your life.
I'm sure I won't be the first to point out that this is a reactive measure, one that helps once most of the resources of processing mail have been used up.
Just look at the past spam articles on slashdot. Some ISPs are reporting a very non-trivial amount of their email traffic is spam. Should I be forced to add another T1 or another box to my ISP setup because 30% of my mail traffic is spam? I think not.
t should also be noted that video games are a popular scape goat because they are relatively new. Books had the same problem back in the day. And most of you can probably remember all the hooplah when rap and the like became popular.
Don't forget the whole D&D thing of the 80's. Man, that was lame.
Okay, how about a Mormon Temple Mod for Quake{1,2,3}? You storm the gates of the temple, plowing over a few of the long-skirted women passing out flyers.
Next, you upgrade your shotgun to the railgun in order to take out the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
You step down to the nailgun for a few missionaries who get in your way.
Then you pull out the BFG to confront Hinkley himself. But it's not the BFG -- it's been modded to be a bowel of lime Jell-O.:)
Product activation is bad. Would you rather have a dongle?
Product activation in any form is simply evil. Microsoft is trying to be like FlexLM by Globertrotter.
As a Unix admin, I must say that of all aspects of my job (including supporting the users), I hate flexlm above all things. I piss away more time getting the keys installed than the damned software.
Why should I need to get a stinkin' key, when I've got the software purchase invoice in my hand?!?
I wish MS would use a dongle. That would push many people over very quickly.
The late Kirsty MacColl put out some fantastic music, too. Her style defies definition, and her lyrics are sharp. She sings in at least 3 languages, and expresses a wry wit in many of her stories. Her singing voice isn't the best, but that's a minor thing.
Check her out -- you won't regret it.
My favorite album is a tie between Electric Landlady and Tropical Brainstorm.
Yup. When the first lawsuit hit mp3.com, my CD collection was at around 325. I then swore off new music. I began buying from secondspin.com, as used sales do not contribute to the labels.
As more lawsuits came along, I got disgusted with the whole thing, and stopped listening to the radio while in the car, and tuned into NPR.
Accept for those 4-5 artists whom I think have talent, and will always buy from them, I haven't bought any current music in 4 years.
My collection stands at around 350 now. That's 25 CDs in 4 years! I once bought that many a month, when I was really into my collection.
However, I did find Shakira's Laundry Service in its entirety on P2P, which I cleaned up and burned to CD for my wife (who saw her on Oprah or Rosie or something).
Same for Movies. I love movies, but rarely ever go to them anymore, ever since the 2600 lawsuit began. My only DVD is a used Matrix DVD, bought online. I actually feel pangs of guit about breaking my boycott when I take my kids to the dollar flick. How's that for conviction?
It's available on RS/6000, too. Our department recently got a p660 server. I was crusing the docs when I stumbled onto something about "hardware threading". AIX 4.3.3 and up can utilize this feature, though we haven't tried it yet.
There's nothing inherently wrong with making a profit. It only becomes wrong when you start infringing the other guy's rights and limiting his choices in the process.
Look, I agree with you.
Why is it that when the MPAA and RIAA sue someone, everyone here cries foul, saying, "No company has a right to make money..." But the context of this case ("livlihood") makes it okay for us now?
I just want to be clear on the motive of the lawsuit. Are they suing primarily because: 1) They can't sell the material; or 2) they can't give it away online for free.
(I know they can't do either, if the work is still under copyright.)
I'd love to see copyright tamed down a little. But if you read the petition, you'll see that under the Statement of the Case:
Petitioners are various individuals and businesses that rely upon the public domain for their livelihood. Some, such as the lead plaintiff Eric Eldred, build free Internet libraries based upon public domain works; others, such as Dover Press, publish public domain works in high-quality commercial editions. All depend upon a rich public domain to support their work, and many make their work freely available to others.
Isn't this about another group of people that thinks it needs to make a profit? Sure, the current handling of copyrite is absurd, but do we want to see a case won in this way? Couldn't a case be made for the enhancememt of society as a whole -- not some company -- that would justify the taming of current copyrite practices?
I guess my question is, in the fight against bad laws, do the ends justify the means if we're to score a trule moral victory in court?
Surely someone must already have this cable, who would be willing to post the pinouts in a public forum?
Never having seen a dreamcast, I bet it has a non-standard connector, so a nice pre-fab cable would be better. However, in light of this totally lame event... open pandora's box again.
Oh Boo Freakin' Hoo! We might get less revenue from our friends across the pond. Whatever will we do!
Yeah -- I really sympathize with that.
Not that I agree with sales/use/vat/duty taxes anyway, but that's beyind the scope of this rant. Why is it that whenever some sovereign nation decides to tax us (or worse, simply compete in the global market -- steel, lumber, etc.), our gov'ment gets it panties all in a wad, but when we tax and tarrif the hell out of everyone else, it's all fine and dandy?
I don't know about mutations and such, but a few of the Southwest states had down-wind surprises delivered by the Nevada test sites.
We just bought some rural property in southern Utah. My wife was searching for plant zone information for our area and happened across a link discussing the sterility and cancer rates of people in Cedar City and Parowan. I can't find that link, but a quick search turned up several relavent sites:
Slashdot Mirror
Speaking as one of those NRA supporters... Because it's been officially announced give us even more reason to complain. Before, we could only speculate and then be shrugged off as paranoid. Now, we can say, "see, they can watch us!"
When I first started doing this, it was a little odd and inconvenient. Now, I feel a great sense of liberty. Excepting my bills, nobody knows what the hell I'm doing with my money. Cash transactions are a lot faster at stores, plus there's always money on-hand.
Ever since the "Know Your Customer" initiative a few years back, and since learning about SARs, I've become even more wary of financial institutions. It's gotten to the point where I'm thinking about socking away my savings (which goes now into mutual funds) into a safe. Mr. Ashcroft can look at my records all he wants and he won't see much. Losing a little bit of interest is worth it to me, in order that I may have a little more privacy in this witch-hunt government we now have to live with.
I don't like the fact that: 1) My financial history can be reviewed on a whim; and 2) My assets can be siezed almost on a whim. Look at those poor folks in South America, whose banks throttled their own money usage. I won't ever be caught in that situation.
I usually don't have that much money on-hand, so all you scare-mongers can hold back on the "what if you get mugged" thing. I pay all bills and do any essential expenditures that same day (the big grocery spree, getting car tuned, etc.).
If only I could force my employer to pay in cash. They recently began requiring direct deposit!
So, the $6.50 in tax for a $100 trip to buy clothes hurts the mother of 3 earning $5.75/hr a lot more than the well-off geek earning $35/hr.
Now do you understand? Sales tax only makes sense for bloated local governments, and not the people who are taxed.
Why get taxed twice (or more) on everything you purchase? Ever look at a utility bill? Consumers are routinely screwed by taxes for utilities.
Sorry I can't dig up the reference at work, but I read in some NRA rag that there is a tax of sorts on either firearms and/or ammo. The article talked about how much of a scandle this is because the money was supposed to go to support wildlife/wilderness management (I guess all of us gun owners are assumed responsible for the ruining of nature -- never mind those SUV's) However, the funds are in reality used for politcal pork, and not to help the park service, etc.
First the number of software users shot up dramatically. Paritally because of the tech boom, partially because computer use wasn't confined to 'leet CS and engineering geeks. With that, the average ability to locate warez, cracks, or to crack themselves dropped, just like internet users at that time (what year did the "endless September" arrive?). BBS's and USENET, both major warez mediums, while still there, are not used by the common computer user anymore.
Plus, all the wealth in the late 90's made it easier for Jr. in college to ask Daddy for the several hundred $ for MS Office.
I'm sure the student discounts help -- a little. But that might be artifically skewing the results. Having been an student and an employee for a university, I know it's not uncommon for both to purchase that $100 copy of Adobe Photoshop for the guy next door, who would otherwise need to pay $700 (or whatever it is now). It does prove that a better price will sell better, though.
Check out squidGuard (search freshmeat). As much as I loathe filtering software, if I was forced to set one up, I'd use squidGuard.
I'm sure I won't be the first to point out that this is a reactive measure, one that helps once most of the resources of processing mail have been used up.
Just look at the past spam articles on slashdot. Some ISPs are reporting a very non-trivial amount of their email traffic is spam. Should I be forced to add another T1 or another box to my ISP setup because 30% of my mail traffic is spam? I think not.
Don't forget the whole D&D thing of the 80's. Man, that was lame.
Next, you upgrade your shotgun to the railgun in order to take out the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
You step down to the nailgun for a few missionaries who get in your way.
Then you pull out the BFG to confront Hinkley himself. But it's not the BFG -- it's been modded to be a bowel of lime Jell-O. :)
It should be very easy to skin "bad guys" so you can scan the yearbook and place specific cheerleader and football player skins on models.
Man, if I had the capital, I'd fund the development of this game myself!
Product activation in any form is simply evil. Microsoft is trying to be like FlexLM by Globertrotter.
As a Unix admin, I must say that of all aspects of my job (including supporting the users), I hate flexlm above all things. I piss away more time getting the keys installed than the damned software.
Why should I need to get a stinkin' key, when I've got the software purchase invoice in my hand?!?
I wish MS would use a dongle. That would push many people over very quickly.
Search Google for "public nntp servers" and you'll see many services that scan the 'net for such machines.
http://www.newzbot.com is a good one.
This thread in misc.consumers.frugal-living (which I frequent) has several tips.
The late Kirsty MacColl put out some fantastic music, too. Her style defies definition, and her lyrics are sharp. She sings in at least 3 languages, and expresses a wry wit in many of her stories. Her singing voice isn't the best, but that's a minor thing.
Check her out -- you won't regret it.
My favorite album is a tie between Electric Landlady and Tropical Brainstorm.
Anything by Suzanne Vega. I have all but her first album, and the music and lyrics are quite good. 99.9F was my personal favorite.
As more lawsuits came along, I got disgusted with the whole thing, and stopped listening to the radio while in the car, and tuned into NPR.
Accept for those 4-5 artists whom I think have talent, and will always buy from them, I haven't bought any current music in 4 years.
My collection stands at around 350 now. That's 25 CDs in 4 years! I once bought that many a month, when I was really into my collection.
However, I did find Shakira's Laundry Service in its entirety on P2P, which I cleaned up and burned to CD for my wife (who saw her on Oprah or Rosie or something).
Same for Movies. I love movies, but rarely ever go to them anymore, ever since the 2600 lawsuit began. My only DVD is a used Matrix DVD, bought online. I actually feel pangs of guit about breaking my boycott when I take my kids to the dollar flick. How's that for conviction?
Didn't someone harass the author of the PAN newsreader for copyright infringement? Tried to get him to remove the decode function?
I thought MIPS was a little DOS program that told you how fast your machine was. :)
It's available on RS/6000, too. Our department recently got a p660 server. I was crusing the docs when I stumbled onto something about "hardware threading". AIX 4.3.3 and up can utilize this feature, though we haven't tried it yet.
Good point.
Look, I agree with you.
Why is it that when the MPAA and RIAA sue someone, everyone here cries foul, saying, "No company has a right to make money..." But the context of this case ("livlihood") makes it okay for us now?
I just want to be clear on the motive of the lawsuit. Are they suing primarily because: 1) They can't sell the material; or 2) they can't give it away online for free.
(I know they can't do either, if the work is still under copyright.)
Petitioners are various individuals and businesses that rely upon the public domain for their livelihood. Some, such as the lead plaintiff Eric Eldred, build free Internet libraries based upon public domain works; others, such as Dover Press, publish public domain works in high-quality commercial editions. All depend upon a rich public domain to support their work, and many make their work freely available to others.
Isn't this about another group of people that thinks it needs to make a profit? Sure, the current handling of copyrite is absurd, but do we want to see a case won in this way? Couldn't a case be made for the enhancememt of society as a whole -- not some company -- that would justify the taming of current copyrite practices?
I guess my question is, in the fight against bad laws, do the ends justify the means if we're to score a trule moral victory in court?
I sure didn't sue Huffy every time I bit the dust during my early years.
Never having seen a dreamcast, I bet it has a non-standard connector, so a nice pre-fab cable would be better. However, in light of this totally lame event... open pandora's box again.
Yeah -- I really sympathize with that.
Not that I agree with sales/use/vat/duty taxes anyway, but that's beyind the scope of this rant. Why is it that whenever some sovereign nation decides to tax us (or worse, simply compete in the global market -- steel, lumber, etc.), our gov'ment gets it panties all in a wad, but when we tax and tarrif the hell out of everyone else, it's all fine and dandy?
Hypocritical scum...
We just bought some rural property in southern Utah. My wife was searching for plant zone information for our area and happened across a link discussing the sterility and cancer rates of people in Cedar City and Parowan. I can't find that link, but a quick search turned up several relavent sites:
http://www.downwinders.org
http://www.eq.state.ut.us/EQRAD/fallout.htm