Any chance we can get the police to break down the doors of people using Netscape 4 and forcibly upgrade them? Heck, start a PayPal collection to hire mercenaries to do the work, and webmasters around the world would start kicking in to help out.
Most likely, it was when Loki called up to ask Microsoft if they were interested in having any of their games ported to Linux. The MS guy apparently found the idea amusing, hence the chortle.
Look at http://www.distributed.net/source/. If you had visited the distributed.net site, you probably would have noticed the "Source" option in the lefthand menu bar. But, hey, it's easier to whine, yes?
Email is too easy to ignore. Place an actual phone call (the 800 number for the state legislature is (800) 889-0229 (thanks, bripeace, for posting it). Or write a paper letter to your senator. Send a telegram. Computer mail, especially on something like this, is far too easy to ignore. Ringing phones get attention in a way email doesn't, especially for politicians.
If that's all you're interested about, then frankly, you've got one fucking huge set of blinders on. Of course, human rights abuses both in China and in the U.S. are awful, but how is your aloof comment going to help?
China doesn't change quickly, but it's possible that as borders open up and personal communication begins to flow back and forth (yes, that'd be an Internet reference), that we're going to see some really neat developments come out of that area.
I mean, to outright dismiss what one-fifth of the planet does because their government is controlled by bastards is ludicrous. People are not necessarily their government. I know I'm not.
... if the legislation is applied carefully. If Ralph Smith has been called Pooky since he was 3 years old, and goes out and registers pooky.com for his own use, hopefully since he didn't register the name with the intent to resell it, he should be allowed to hang on to it. However, if Ralph hears that the next big web product, etc. is going to be called Pooky, and he registers it and puts an index.html page up that says, "This page available for purchase.", then I have no problem with it getting taken away from him, since he didn't intend to legitimately use the name, and is just out being obnoxious.
Actually, DC Comics owns the Sandman characters lock, stock, and barrel. However, Gaiman (IIRC) made it fairly clear to DC that if they used the character without consulting with him, they wouldn't have to worry about him ever gracing their halls again. Hence, every issue of The Dreaming I've seen has in the credits "Neil Gaiman -- Consultant" No idea if this happened with the JLA issue, though, but I'd assume that Grant Morrison gave Neil at least a phone call about the idea...
It actually gets worse than that. After a while, MS (actually, just about any software corp.) stops selling licenses for earlier software packages once they get that package's replacement out the door. Any new Wintels that get purchased come with Office2K on them. Want to go back to '97? Tough noogies. So, rather than trying to play the Save As game with VPs, the whole corporation "upgrades". And the snowball, it keeps on a-rollin'.
Slashdot Mirror
Any chance we can get the police to break down the doors of people using Netscape 4 and forcibly upgrade them? Heck, start a PayPal collection to hire mercenaries to do the work, and webmasters around the world would start kicking in to help out.
Most likely, it was when Loki called up to ask Microsoft if they were interested in having any of their games ported to Linux. The MS guy apparently found the idea amusing, hence the chortle.
--Matt
Look at http://www.distributed.net/source/. If you had visited the distributed.net site, you probably would have noticed the "Source" option in the lefthand menu bar. But, hey, it's easier to whine, yes?
--Matt
Email is too easy to ignore. Place an actual phone call (the 800 number for the state legislature is (800) 889-0229 (thanks, bripeace, for posting it). Or write a paper letter to your senator. Send a telegram. Computer mail, especially on something like this, is far too easy to ignore. Ringing phones get attention in a way email doesn't, especially for politicians.
C'mon, guys, why link to the domain of some slob trying to get the Python people to buy a domain from him? Link to the real site.
--Matt
I think I've found the original logo.
--Matt
If that's all you're interested about, then frankly, you've got one fucking huge set of blinders on. Of course, human rights abuses both in China and in the U.S. are awful, but how is your aloof comment going to help?
:-)
China doesn't change quickly, but it's possible that as borders open up and personal communication begins to flow back and forth (yes, that'd be an Internet reference), that we're going to see some really neat developments come out of that area.
I mean, to outright dismiss what one-fifth of the planet does because their government is controlled by bastards is ludicrous. People are not necessarily their government. I know I'm not.
Think more.
--Matt
... if the legislation is applied carefully. If Ralph Smith has been called Pooky since he was 3 years old, and goes out and registers pooky.com for his own use, hopefully since he didn't register the name with the intent to resell it, he should be allowed to hang on to it. However, if Ralph hears that the next big web product, etc. is going to be called Pooky, and he registers it and puts an index.html page up that says, "This page available for purchase.", then I have no problem with it getting taken away from him, since he didn't intend to legitimately use the name, and is just out being obnoxious.
Or am I missing something here?
--Matt
Actually, DC Comics owns the Sandman characters lock, stock, and barrel. However, Gaiman (IIRC) made it fairly clear to DC that if they used the character without consulting with him, they wouldn't have to worry about him ever gracing their halls again. Hence, every issue of The Dreaming I've seen has in the credits "Neil Gaiman -- Consultant" No idea if this happened with the JLA issue, though, but I'd assume that Grant Morrison gave Neil at least a phone call about the idea...
--Matt
It actually gets worse than that. After a while, MS (actually, just about any software corp.) stops selling licenses for earlier software packages once they get that package's replacement out the door. Any new Wintels that get purchased come with Office2K on them. Want to go back to '97? Tough noogies. So, rather than trying to play the Save As game with VPs, the whole corporation "upgrades". And the snowball, it keeps on a-rollin'.
--Matt