I live near Takoma Park, MD, which voted itself a Nuclear Free Zone about 15 years ago. The ordinance prohibits the city from purchasing anything from companies "knowingly or intentionally engaged" in nuclear weapons production. To my knowledge, there have only been two waivers in the 15 year period (try finding a company that makes streetlights that isn't involved in nukes!), and the residents of the town consider it generally a success, even if the police department had to drive Chryslers (eewwww!).
Of course, this is not your most conservative-leaning electorate - I think the #2 registered party is the Greens (after the Democrats) - so keeping the political goodwill to enforce a choice like this was easy. Of course, Snohomish or King County may be a different matter entirely.
Yeah! And what's more, taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for it - the government should.
Re:The RIAA, et al., could learn from this...
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Homogenized Music
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· Score: 2
The RIAA has learned from this. Selling 100 copies each of one million indie acts get them no money and gets them nowhere. Selling 100 million copies of the latest Cher or Bratney Spears drek gets them a lot of money and right where they want to be.
That, in a nutshell, is why radio sucks.
A GOOD Wash DC Station? Not Likely.
on
Homogenized Music
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· Score: 2
How can you say the station with "Elliot in the Morning" is decent at anything? If one was to look up "suck-ass sellout corporate radio station with typical asinine dork 'radio personalities'" in the dictionary, DC101 would be the example.
And then we have WHFS "Modern Rock" - supposedly 'Alternative' - alternative to what? Country and Western? Turning the goddam radio off?
It's too bad one of the last good radio stations in the area, WRNR (Eastern Shore / Annapolis), can't beef up their signal into the DC area. But then they would just be assimilated into the DC radio shitpile just like all the rest.
If I sound a little pissed about the state of DC radio - it's because I am. My car doesn't have a tape or CD player!
"...What we really need is more competition in the marketplace..."
I live in Montgomery County, Maryland, where only 18 months ago (in my neighborhood, at least) there were at least 5 competing broadband providers:
One Large crappy overpriced Telco;
Two DSL CLECs marketed by a dozen resellers;
One (or Two?) satellite 'dish' providers;
One huge national cable company; and
One regional cable company.
One would think, with all this competition, that we would have decent prices and maybe some modicum of customer service. But after the failure of one CLEC, the other hanging on by a thread, and the major cable company gobbled up by another - we had then, and still have, some of the highest cable and broadband prices in the United States. And customer service? I think it must be a law here that telco / cable service must suck or else.
18 months and four email addresses later, I can state that what passes for 'competition' around here sure isn't helping much.
Indeed, the govt overtly- not just implicitly - condones the use of tobacco products - in fact, many state govts have budgets built on the financial foundation of taxation of tobacco use. Consider this sad fact when you state that regulated / taxed / condoned evil is better than a world where one can mount a defense legally. What if Congress decides regulation and taxation of spyware is the appropriate outcome? How hard will it be to get back privacy rights after that?
Additionally, tobacco sales outside the US are essentially unregulated - in fact, they are aided and abetted by the US govt, to improve the balance of payments and ensure that the tobacco companies can make their liability litigation payments ad infinitum. Privacy, in my opinion, should be considered just as much a 'human right' as freedom from predatory marketing of inherently unhealthy (and useless) products. Of course, human rights are usually the first victim in the pursuit of cash flow.
This isn't letting the market decide. Their website complains about the 'non-interactive' 'legacy' 'monopoly of the current.com naming scheme - but I don't see them embracing IPX/SPX as the default communications protocol. How is replacing one 'monopoly' with another - more expensive - more restrictive - monopoly progress?
No, this is exactly like those 'gated communities' up the street - they want to shit in the sewers I paid for, commute in their fat-ass SUVs through my neighboorhood on roads I paid for, and then shut out the 'undesireables' and run their little piece of the world according to different laws, because the law of the land doesn't suit them. The real crime is that those government-blessed groups, ICANN and WIPO and the like, who don't even have pretend to the fig leaf of 'public interest' will allow them to do it.
I expect the market will decide for them, and they aren't going to like the decision - this little experiment is doomed to failure - but it's the principle of the thing that pisses me off.
All Lawyers, Doctors, Accountants required to register.pro domains
Senator Fritz Hollings today submitted legislation that will require all newly-licensed medical, legal, or accounting professionals to register a.pro domain name with RegistryPro. "This is our latest consumer-friendly protection legislation," said Sen. Hollings, "making sure that consumers aren't duped by sham professionals with.org,.net or.com addresses. Think of the confusion that might create!"
RegistryPro's chief executive announced a concurrent price increase and change in registration policy - new domains are now priced at $300 per month. "Seems our 'gated community' just got a little more exclusive!" he was overheard to say.
When those same people regularly bring things that are proven to be dangerous into their homes and they are often ambivalent or even supportive, to say the least, about products which have been statistically shown to lower life expectancy. They will rise up against the laws requiring safe operation of a product and cry "They are taking my liberties away!" Why should (l)users behave any differently when it comes to software? (And for that matter, is it fair to hold software companies to some higher standard of conduct, when other clearly defective products get special legal protection?)
I agree, the script kiddies and software authors are both culpable - but the idiot users aren't exactly innocent. People use Outlook for the same reason virus writers do - because it's easy, and to hell with the consequences.
to feign competition and keep the prices as high as possible
Posts like this make my head hurt. Since when does competition, feigned or otherwise, keep prices high? The reason 15,000 people are going to get the 'pink slip' is to reduce competition (and redundancy in manufacturing), thus improving profitability. Or so the theory goes. Time will tell.
Web Services = Inherently Insecure
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Web Services
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Web Services- you take the crackable and exploitable service on port 'X' and advertise it on port 80 or 443. Just as bad, just as exploitable - but now the IT people can't firewall it.
Rules of profit maximization in the modern recording industry:
1. You are what you listen to, just as you are what you drink and what you wear; you are the car you drive and stuff you buy. You must buy what everyone else buys to be accepted. People who choose not to buy are strange and suspicious; marginalize them at all times. Their politics must be repressed.
2. You must buy this thing NOW. You must subscribe to the illusion that you 'got it first'. Buying things later is not acceptable. You must buy when demand is highest and supply is limited.
3. You must believe and support the supposed American ideals of 'freedom of choice' and 'rugged individualism'. But then, you must buy what we tell you to buy and you must eat at McDonald's. You must drive a sport-utility vehicle.
4. We will use modern streamlined methods of industrial manufacturing, production and marketing; but at all times you must refer to our products as 'art', and the manufacturers as 'artists'. Our right to produce these products must always be protected; however, your rights to use the products or criticize them must be limited sharply. We do not wish for you to use the product, or even to enjoy the product - we only want you to buy it.
Slashdot Mirror
It's better than bad... It's good!
"They have no incentive to screw you."
Ah yes, that would account for people being arrested for trying to buy sale items at the advertised price. Give me the commission-based salespeople anytime.
I live near Takoma Park, MD, which voted itself a Nuclear Free Zone about 15 years ago. The ordinance prohibits the city from purchasing anything from companies "knowingly or intentionally engaged" in nuclear weapons production. To my knowledge, there have only been two waivers in the 15 year period (try finding a company that makes streetlights that isn't involved in nukes!), and the residents of the town consider it generally a success, even if the police department had to drive Chryslers (eewwww!).
Of course, this is not your most conservative-leaning electorate - I think the #2 registered party is the Greens (after the Democrats) - so keeping the political goodwill to enforce a choice like this was easy. Of course, Snohomish or King County may be a different matter entirely.
Exactly how do you quantify a "minor massacre"?
"And if you don't know what I'm talking about, even if you don't agree with me, then you're EXACTLY who the fuck I'm talking about."
That doesn't sound French - it sounds like John Ashcroft.
So the Talmud would suggest using TCP for the divorce protocol, rather than UDP?
Yeah! And what's more, taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for it - the government should.
The RIAA has learned from this. Selling 100 copies each of one million indie acts get them no money and gets them nowhere. Selling 100 million copies of the latest Cher or Bratney Spears drek gets them a lot of money and right where they want to be.
That, in a nutshell, is why radio sucks.
How can you say the station with "Elliot in the Morning" is decent at anything?
If one was to look up "suck-ass sellout corporate radio station with typical asinine dork 'radio personalities'" in the dictionary, DC101 would be the example.
And then we have WHFS "Modern Rock" - supposedly 'Alternative' - alternative to what? Country and Western? Turning the goddam radio off?
It's too bad one of the last good radio stations in the area, WRNR (Eastern Shore / Annapolis), can't beef up their signal into the DC area. But then they would just be assimilated into the DC radio shitpile just like all the rest.
If I sound a little pissed about the state of DC radio - it's because I am. My car doesn't have a tape or CD player!
"...What we really need is more competition in the marketplace..."
I live in Montgomery County, Maryland, where only 18 months ago (in my neighborhood, at least) there were at least 5 competing broadband providers:
One Large crappy overpriced Telco;
Two DSL CLECs marketed by a dozen resellers;
One (or Two?) satellite 'dish' providers;
One huge national cable company; and
One regional cable company.
One would think, with all this competition, that we would have decent prices and maybe some modicum of customer service. But after the failure of one CLEC, the other hanging on by a thread, and the major cable company gobbled up by another - we had then, and still have, some of the highest cable and broadband prices in the United States. And customer service? I think it must be a law here that telco / cable service must suck or else.
18 months and four email addresses later, I can state that what passes for 'competition' around here sure isn't helping much.
Indeed, the govt overtly- not just implicitly - condones the use of tobacco products - in fact, many state govts have budgets built on the financial foundation of taxation of tobacco use. Consider this sad fact when you state that regulated / taxed / condoned evil is better than a world where one can mount a defense legally. What if Congress decides regulation and taxation of spyware is the appropriate outcome? How hard will it be to get back privacy rights after that?
Additionally, tobacco sales outside the US are essentially unregulated - in fact, they are aided and abetted by the US govt, to improve the balance of payments and ensure that the tobacco companies can make their liability litigation payments ad infinitum. Privacy, in my opinion, should be considered just as much a 'human right' as freedom from predatory marketing of inherently unhealthy (and useless) products. Of course, human rights are usually the first victim in the pursuit of cash flow.
It took eighteen years to get one on-line in the US... what's so bad about 20?
This isn't letting the market decide. Their website complains about the 'non-interactive' 'legacy' 'monopoly of the current .com naming scheme - but I don't see them embracing IPX/SPX as the default communications protocol. How is replacing one 'monopoly' with another - more expensive - more restrictive - monopoly progress?
No, this is exactly like those 'gated communities' up the street - they want to shit in the sewers I paid for, commute in their fat-ass SUVs through my neighboorhood on roads I paid for, and then shut out the 'undesireables' and run their little piece of the world according to different laws, because the law of the land doesn't suit them. The real crime is that those government-blessed groups, ICANN and WIPO and the like, who don't even have pretend to the fig leaf of 'public interest' will allow them to do it.
I expect the market will decide for them, and they aren't going to like the decision - this little experiment is doomed to failure - but it's the principle of the thing that pisses me off.
All Lawyers, Doctors, Accountants required to register .pro domains
.pro domain name with RegistryPro. "This is our latest consumer-friendly protection legislation," said Sen. Hollings, "making sure that consumers aren't duped by sham professionals with .org, .net or .com addresses. Think of the confusion that might create!"
Senator Fritz Hollings today submitted legislation that will require all newly-licensed medical, legal, or accounting professionals to register a
RegistryPro's chief executive announced a concurrent price increase and change in registration policy - new domains are now priced at $300 per month. "Seems our 'gated community' just got a little more exclusive!" he was overheard to say.
Bah. Just like the elitist fscks down the road who want to build an 'exclusive community' on public infrastructure paid for with my taxes .
Let these asswipes manage their own root server. When the thing is 0wn3d by some teenager from Singapore, I'll be the first one in line to laugh.
When those same people regularly bring things that are proven to be dangerous into their homes and they are often ambivalent or even supportive, to say the least, about products which have been statistically shown to lower life expectancy. They will rise up against the laws requiring safe operation of a product and cry "They are taking my liberties away!" Why should (l)users behave any differently when it comes to software? (And for that matter, is it fair to hold software companies to some higher standard of conduct, when other clearly defective products get special legal protection?)
I agree, the script kiddies and software authors are both culpable - but the idiot users aren't exactly innocent. People use Outlook for the same reason virus writers do - because it's easy, and to hell with the consequences.
OS-X is based on a lot of open-source code. Time for payback! Open-source the OS9 code (and its predecessors)!
BTW, guys, I like the 'Aqua' slash theme... but won't you get sued?
to feign competition and keep the prices as high as possible
Posts like this make my head hurt. Since when does competition, feigned or otherwise, keep prices high? The reason 15,000 people are going to get the 'pink slip' is to reduce competition (and redundancy in manufacturing), thus improving profitability. Or so the theory goes. Time will tell.
Maybe they should Roll Their Own Business Desktops as a cost saving exercise. Makes about the same amount of sense.
Web Services- you take the crackable and exploitable service on port 'X' and advertise it on port 80 or 443. Just as bad, just as exploitable - but now the IT people can't firewall it.
I can't speak for others, but this is probably why I didn't download your software:
1. User comes to IS (me) and asks for software that does whatever. They ususally need it yesterday.
2. I search Google, Dave Central maybe, relevant newsgroups, talk to peers, look at reviews if they are available.
3. I register for eval copies of software (maybe yours) and download what I can.
4. I look them over with users, decide one is good enough, purchase a copy of software, go on to other tasks.
5. I get email from your company with user/pass for evaluation.
Yes, when it is non-mission-critical stuff, decisions may be made that quickly.
You haven't bought anything? You refuse to be exploited? You don't own a TV?
Then you must be a terrorist.
Rules of profit maximization in the modern recording industry:
1. You are what you listen to, just as you are what you drink and what you wear; you are the car you drive and stuff you buy. You must buy what everyone else buys to be accepted. People who choose not to buy are strange and suspicious; marginalize them at all times. Their politics must be repressed.
2. You must buy this thing NOW. You must subscribe to the illusion that you 'got it first'. Buying things later is not acceptable. You must buy when demand is highest and supply is limited.
3. You must believe and support the supposed American ideals of 'freedom of choice' and 'rugged individualism'. But then, you must buy what we tell you to buy and you must eat at McDonald's. You must drive a sport-utility vehicle.
4. We will use modern streamlined methods of industrial manufacturing, production and marketing; but at all times you must refer to our products as 'art', and the manufacturers as 'artists'. Our right to produce these products must always be protected; however, your rights to use the products or criticize them must be limited sharply. We do not wish for you to use the product, or even to enjoy the product - we only want you to buy it.
It's Wernher, not Warner.
The concept of intelligent people moving to Atlanta is one I can't grasp.
You know, I thought a CPU was a pretty inefficient way to cool water too!