Sure. OTOH, the terrorists destroy the WTC and kill the father and mother of an american child, who grows up listening to people like you saying that he shouldn't do anything about it and that he should protest any attempts to destroy the terrorists because "violence creates violence". 25 years later, that kid grows up turned into another peaceful, civilized citizen who opposes any U.S. intervention against Afghanistan or other countries... and is killed by another attack perpetrated by the terrorists that we failed to capture after the WTC.
Don't get me wrong, I do believe that the U.S. should do anything in its hands to solve the Israeli-Palestinan problem (if only to leave Bin Laden without arguments). But that doesn't exclude using the force to capture or destroy the criminals. And if you think otherwise, I invite you to step up the next time the police in your zone has a serial killer surrounded and try to talk him into giving up his evil ways, instead of letting the cops using (horror!!) physical force to arrest him.
You don't mention many details about how did they manage to send spam. In my experience, qmail's antispam measures, when properly configured, are as good as anyone else's, and of course, if one of your customers suddenly decides to become a spammer, there's little you can do (the same goes if they are stupid enough to run an open relay that has you as their smarthost).
Get with the real world. You're dealing, most likely, with Arab terrorists. They're born and raised to think
martyrdom after destroying civilian targets is the way to Mecca.
Glad to see that you're so sure of that. Are you sure that this wasn't done by another WASP militia member who served formerly in the Gulf War?
We might argue about whether retaliation is the answer here (and I can certainly understand homicidal impulses in this case), but you want to nail the actual culprit, not just some random scapegoat.
IIRC, there was a German in Nazi Germany who had planned an electronic computer, and maybe even built it
That would have been Konrad Zuse, and he DID built several prototypes that were destroyed during allied bombings.
Another thing is whether his machine could actually be classified as a "computer", according to academic / theoretic standards. Frankly, I don't know enough about that subject to comment. Anyone?
And while we're on it, don't listen to any music at all. Don't watch any TV. Don't buy petrol from any company. Don't buy any food. Hell, don't breathe at all.
(And BTW, the point of boycotting a certain studio wasn't about whether their products are good or not, but about their unethical practices).
One could argue, if one were a supporter of capitalism, that at least that system offers you the choice not to
see Sony's films as a punishment. Under socialism the government owns virtually everything, making a boycott
impossible no matter how outrageous the behaviour. As I said, one could argue...
Of course, one could also argue that, as corporations become bigger and more powerful snd start branching into more economic sectors (how many entertainment companies does Sony own already? Columbia, Sony Pictures Classics, (the former) CBS...), it becomes more and more difficult to avoid their products...
If you read the article you would also see that these people are also demanding that the government give them jobs. And just what principle does this fall under?
One of the reasons why their company went bankrupt was because their main customer, Telefonica, refused to paid their company for work that had been done. And guess what? Telefonica was at the time a government owned company.
Didn't the proposed product tip you off just a little bit? Software that allows you to adjust the brightness and
contrast of your monitor over the internet? Even most of the dot-coms that failed at least were _going_ to
produce something with a slight bit of use.
Hey, there were dotcoms that allowed you to deliver dog shit to your enemies' houses. After that...
for those working in the them, it gives them* a way to earn much needed money (if they didn't need it that much, would they work at thsoe rates?)
You know, this is interesting. Whenever I visit Thailand I like to search for families that are starving and have children, pay them to "take care" of their little girls for a couple of hours and then take them to the hotel to f*ck them till their eyes pop.
People tell me that's a horrible thing to do, but I don't understand what the problem is. For me, I get pleasure at a cheap rate, and for the children and their families, it gives them a way to earn much needed money (if they didn't need it they wouldn't do it, right?)
I'd appreciate your thoughts in the matter, since you seem to understand this way of thinking.
I wasn't talking strictly about geek toys or experiences, but in general. Generally, the experiences that you have as a child tend to be much more vivid in your imagination than those you have as an adult.
And if I were you, I would be more careful with the derisive anti-geek comments. I mean, you almost made Jon Katz sound *right*...
(What were you in high-school anyway? A football jock?)
The problem is not with those games. The problem is with you.
Ever had the experience of experiencing as an adult something (a place, a building, a movie) that impressed you a lot as a child? 90% of the times you feel disappointed, because it doesn't measure up at all to the idea that you had kept in your memory.
Well, here in Spain about 40% of the spam that I receive comes from spanish companies. If a law like this was approved here I would get rid already of 40% of my spam.
Not a perfect solution, but it's something.
(Of course, the perfect solution would be an international treaty declaring spammers non-human beings and making it legal to hunt them down and shooting the fsck out of them, but I'm afraid we are still too soft-hearted for that).
Re:You all really think this???
on
Norway Bans Spam
·
· Score: 1
If the National Kidney Fundation send me an email that I have not asked for, using an address that they harvested without my knowledge, it IS spam. Period.
Spam isn't defined by its commercial nature; it's defined by the fact that it's sent to you without your permission, and WITH YOU PAYING ITS COST. And if you disagree with this, wait a moment until I send you these 2256 chain letters concerning women in Afghanistan and dying children who want to receive postcards from all around the world...
You *have* been hanging out in the last bastions of politeness on Usenet.
Most of the Usenet *groups* are text-based, but note that group != traffic. Last time I looked, binary groups consumed about 70% (if not more) of the total bandwidth in a typical news server.
Re:Christmas isn't about presents
on
Gifts For Geeks
·
· Score: 1
Have you considered the number of geeks who are maladjusted socially? The sort of people who, when thrust
into the middle of a bunch of relatives they don't like and whom they only meet once a year, are going to be
less than socially acceptable?
Actually, that happens not just to geeks, but pretty much to anybody.
It's funny how so many people complain about excessive "government intervention" on the tech sector, and complain about "bureaucrats" and such. Makes one wonder, where did the ARPAN... erm, the Internet come from in the first place?
Not only that. I remember having read that the spanish Army Museum (Museo del Ejercito) still keeps at least some of them, donated by the germans during Franco's dictatorship and used by the spanish army at least until the 50s (much to the delight of the british intelligence, of course). I also have seen another one at the Imperial War Museum in London.
Slashdot Mirror
Sure. OTOH, the terrorists destroy the WTC and kill the father and mother of an american child, who grows up listening to people like you saying that he shouldn't do anything about it and that he should protest any attempts to destroy the terrorists because "violence creates violence". 25 years later, that kid grows up turned into another peaceful, civilized citizen who opposes any U.S. intervention against Afghanistan or other countries... and is killed by another attack perpetrated by the terrorists that we failed to capture after the WTC.
Don't get me wrong, I do believe that the U.S. should do anything in its hands to solve the Israeli-Palestinan problem (if only to leave Bin Laden without arguments). But that doesn't exclude using the force to capture or destroy the criminals. And if you think otherwise, I invite you to step up the next time the police in your zone has a serial killer surrounded and try to talk him into giving up his evil ways, instead of letting the cops using (horror!!) physical force to arrest him.
You don't mention many details about how did they manage to send spam. In my experience, qmail's antispam measures, when properly configured, are as good as anyone else's, and of course, if one of your customers suddenly decides to become a spammer, there's little you can do (the same goes if they are stupid enough to run an open relay that has you as their smarthost).
martyrdom after destroying civilian targets is the way to Mecca.
Glad to see that you're so sure of that. Are you sure that this wasn't done by another WASP militia member who served formerly in the Gulf War?
We might argue about whether retaliation is the answer here (and I can certainly understand homicidal impulses in this case), but you want to nail the actual culprit, not just some random scapegoat.
IIRC, there was a German in Nazi Germany who had planned an electronic computer, and maybe even built it
That would have been Konrad Zuse, and he DID built several prototypes that were destroyed during allied bombings.
Another thing is whether his machine could actually be classified as a "computer", according to academic / theoretic standards. Frankly, I don't know enough about that subject to comment. Anyone?
Oh, yes. Don't see any movies at all.
And while we're on it, don't listen to any music at all. Don't watch any TV. Don't buy petrol from any company. Don't buy any food. Hell, don't breathe at all.
(And BTW, the point of boycotting a certain studio wasn't about whether their products are good or not, but about their unethical practices).
One could argue, if one were a supporter of capitalism, that at least that system offers you the choice not to see Sony's films as a punishment. Under socialism the government owns virtually everything, making a boycott impossible no matter how outrageous the behaviour. As I said, one could argue...
Of course, one could also argue that, as corporations become bigger and more powerful snd start branching into more economic sectors (how many entertainment companies does Sony own already? Columbia, Sony Pictures Classics, (the former) CBS...), it becomes more and more difficult to avoid their products...
If you read the article you would also see that these people are also demanding that the government give them jobs. And just what principle does this fall under?
One of the reasons why their company went bankrupt was because their main customer, Telefonica, refused to paid their company for work that had been done. And guess what? Telefonica was at the time a government owned company.
Didn't the proposed product tip you off just a little bit? Software that allows you to adjust the brightness and contrast of your monitor over the internet? Even most of the dot-coms that failed at least were _going_ to produce something with a slight bit of use.
Hey, there were dotcoms that allowed you to deliver dog shit to your enemies' houses. After that...
Nice try, astroturfer.
(And before you dismiss this as a knee-jerk reaction, read the above again: doesn't it sound suspiciously similar to "Linux is antiamerican?")
You know, this is interesting. Whenever I visit Thailand I like to search for families that are starving and have children, pay them to "take care" of their little girls for a couple of hours and then take them to the hotel to f*ck them till their eyes pop.
People tell me that's a horrible thing to do, but I don't understand what the problem is. For me, I get pleasure at a cheap rate, and for the children and their families, it gives them a way to earn much needed money (if they didn't need it they wouldn't do it, right?)
I'd appreciate your thoughts in the matter, since you seem to understand this way of thinking.
(For the clue impaired: +1 Satire, you idiot!!
Godwin's Law alert!!!! Godwin's Law alert!!!!
"am I naked in this ASCII dump or not" dot com...
I wasn't talking strictly about geek toys or experiences, but in general. Generally, the experiences that you have as a child tend to be much more vivid in your imagination than those you have as an adult.
And if I were you, I would be more careful with the derisive anti-geek comments. I mean, you almost made Jon Katz sound *right*...
(What were you in high-school anyway? A football jock?)
The problem is not with those games. The problem is with you.
Ever had the experience of experiencing as an adult something (a place, a building, a movie) that impressed you a lot as a child? 90% of the times you feel disappointed, because it doesn't measure up at all to the idea that you had kept in your memory.
Well, here in Spain about 40% of the spam that I receive comes from spanish companies. If a law like this was approved here I would get rid already of 40% of my spam.
Not a perfect solution, but it's something.
(Of course, the perfect solution would be an international treaty declaring spammers non-human beings and making it legal to hunt them down and shooting the fsck out of them, but I'm afraid we are still too soft-hearted for that).
If the National Kidney Fundation send me an email that I have not asked for, using an address that they harvested without my knowledge, it IS spam. Period.
Spam isn't defined by its commercial nature; it's defined by the fact that it's sent to you without your permission, and WITH YOU PAYING ITS COST. And if you disagree with this, wait a moment until I send you these 2256 chain letters concerning women in Afghanistan and dying children who want to receive postcards from all around the world...
You *have* been hanging out in the last bastions of politeness on Usenet.
Most of the Usenet *groups* are text-based, but note that group != traffic. Last time I looked, binary groups consumed about 70% (if not more) of the total bandwidth in a typical news server.
Have you considered the number of geeks who are maladjusted socially? The sort of people who, when thrust into the middle of a bunch of relatives they don't like and whom they only meet once a year, are going to be less than socially acceptable?
Actually, that happens not just to geeks, but pretty much to anybody.
Doh!!! So that's where Neal Stephenson got the idea from!!!
And what if it wasn't in their AUP, and they started to do it without notice?
>But standards can often
get in the way of the cool stuff.
You know, this sounded to me strangely similar to that "right to innovate" that some corporations invoked to justify their bullyish behaviour...
Is there a "clueless" moderation category for posts like these? Like, please...
Erm... Legos come actually from Denmark.
It's funny how so many people complain about excessive "government intervention" on the tech sector, and complain about "bureaucrats" and such. Makes one wonder, where did the ARPAN... erm, the Internet come from in the first place?
Not only that. I remember having read that the spanish Army Museum (Museo del Ejercito) still keeps at least some of them, donated by the germans during Franco's dictatorship and used by the spanish army at least until the 50s (much to the delight of the british intelligence, of course). I also have seen another one at the Imperial War Museum in London.