I see the headline and I read "Al in Sci-Fi." And here I am getting all excited that they're making a series basd on UHF and are going to air it on SciFi. Damn you!
"serious pirates just laugh at the stupid copy protection schemes being used (audio patch cord and decent soundcard anyone?)"
Why make it that complicated? Silly ideas like this do nothing to serious pirates because they copy the image of the disc bit-for-bit (including copy protection schemes). This is why, for example, CSS doesn't do a damn thing about all those pirate DVDs coming from Hong Kong.
DRM shouldn't be thought of as "copy prevention" as much as "playback prevention."
The title of this thread suggests otherwise, but even if we ignore this you're forgetting the cost of mandatory upgrades. I somehow doubt Microsoft would blatently refuse to support NT 4 before its end-of-life if it had to worry about competitors.
"Perhaps if Timmy the Tooth: Decay Demolisher II was placed on this list there might be some questions behind the reasoning, but a war game?"
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker seems to promote running baddies through with their own sword instead of holding hands and singing Kumbaya. And let's not forget the constant lack of negotiations between Mario and Bowser.
What are these "laws of thermodynamics" you speak of?
Re:What if another coutry did the same ?
on
Strike on Iraq
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
First off, I'd just like to start my flame by saying that the voices of millions have little effect on my moral decisions on what is "right" and what is "wrong."
"I wonder what would be the reaction here in/. if another country, ANY country, was bombing a poor country"
It all depends on why the "poor" country is being bombed, doesn't it? "Just because?" Just about nobody would be happy about that. "To stop the government from slaughtering its own people," on the other hand, is something completely different.
"against the willing of millions of protesters around the world"
Protesters who themselves agree that Sadam's government is slaughtering its own people. Protesters who seem to be OK with acts like this as long as it doesn't affect any other country.
"with no consensus from the United Nations."
A UN which also didn't give consensus to intervening in Cambodia or Rwanda. The only rule that the UN has truly enforced in the past 50 years is "Don't slaughter your neighbor's people." From inception, the UN has been silent on matters of genocide within a member's borders.
"Yes, everybody would be talking about a coward attack, a massacre, a genocide."
I'm sorry, are we talking about current US actions, or Iraqi actions in the past two or three decades?
"I know I will be modded as a troll by people who care more about Nacionalism"
No, the true nationalists are the ones that don't want to interfere in a country's "internal matters," no matter what they are. National Socialism got to where it was not only from internal nationalism ("Yay Germany!"), but also external nationalists who agreed that Germany had a national right to Austria, the Sudetenland, etc.
IMO, the anti-war protesters who are against the war because the Iraqi government poses no (immediate) therat to us are the nationalists in this debate. It shows that the protesters value the lives and livelihoods of their fellow citizens than citizens of a country a world away.
"Poor Iraquies had to suffer Saddam Hussein's - former ally of the US - dictatorship, and now many of them will be killed by the bombings."
Anybody who thinks that more civillians will die as a direct or indirect result of US actions in this war than who would die by Sadam's hand if this invasion didn't happen is a shot-sighted fool. It's a given that not only more Iraqi people will be alive because of this, but also with more personal and collective freedom. By arguing that it would be better to leave Sadam in power than for the US to invade you are holding the US to a double standard (It's more OK for Sadam but not the US) that is based on a nationalist viewpoint (It's more OK for Sadam because he's an Iraqi).
At the very least, we're not the ones actually trying to slaughter civillians.
"Just like it happened with civilians in Alfghanistan, tortured by the Taliban regime and afterwords bombed by the US."
Again, more would have died in continued Taliban rule. And no rational person could argue that the Taliban would have gone away without a fight. And I submit that the US invasion was far less bloody and racist than any potential internal uprising against the Taliban. All Pashtuns probably would have been hearded up and systematically killed, just like what has happened in every other revolution in the world (with one exception).
"Again, some of these Talibans were allies of the US when fighting a prior "evil", the Soviet Union."
Some of the Mujaheddin were in the opposition as well
Would you rather the Taliban still be in power? You seem to be arguing that the US overthrowing the Taliban is somehow worse than letting the Taliban continue to fester.
"It will bring more terrorism, more hatred, and innocent civilian deaths, once more."
If we do nothing, if we were to suddenly adopt a foreign policy that rese
Re:Does anyone find it odd...
on
Strike on Iraq
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
"Are there cameramen with the cameras?"
Are there government minders with the cameramen?
The Iraqi government doesn't want:
The US to have confirmation that its attacks hit the mark.
Anybody else to have confirmation that the US attacks hit the mark (especially the Iraqi people).
The US to be shown blowing something up that isn't a hospital, mosque, school, etc.
The Apple press release goes on to say that Al Gore's membership on the board will be a unique one. His duties will involve presiding over board meetings and, yet he will only be allowed to cast a vote in the event of a tie between the other members.
Mr. Gore was quoted as saying "Damn it, not again!"
Depends on what you mean by "very good." In all science, we can describe the way something works, we can predict the way something works, we can even give it a nifty name ("gravity" "electricity"), but we still know squat about "Why?" Nifty names only answer "How?"
I'm tempted to say that "Why?" is by definition outside the realm of science.
"How about we take a new approach to having students actually give a rat's ass about science or learning in general? The problem isn't textbooks or any 'style' of teaching. It's students who come to school who simply don't care."
How about we take a new approach to having inmates actually give a rat's ass about rehabilitation in general? The problem isn't prison work programs or any 'style' of rehabilitation. It's inmates who are sent to prison who simply don't care.
(and I haven't even touched on your more racist comments)
"Is anyone actually forced to memorize the periodic table these days? Talk about a pointless rote memorization task..."
Compared to what? Compared to rote memorization of multiplication tables? When I ask you "What's twelve times twelve?" do you sit and add twelve twelves in your head, or do you just spit out the answer you had to memorize in grade school?
If grade school is too long ago for you, there's always things like "square and cube roots," "pi to six digits," "trigonometric functions of angles divisible by 15 degrees" and "tables of integration."
Am I picking on the maths too much? "Galilean equations of motion?"
There are times when memorization is both needed and more beneficial than just using a calculator to answer the simplest questions. If you can't do the simple stuff without having to push buttons, you can't be all that useful in figuring out the complicated stuff. It would be cheaper for me to just push my own buttons than to hire you to do it for me.
However, I do agree that memorizing the basics is unfortunately going the way of the dodo. Did you know they now allow TI-89 calculators for AP Calculus exams?
" Poems rhyme and have a regular meter and that's what makes it easier for us to remember"
Somebody not familiar with the works of e. e. cummings, I see. Somewhere in the late ninteent and early twentieth century, the definition of "poem" became "Whatever the author says is a poem."
Slashdot Mirror
I see the headline and I read "Al in Sci-Fi." And here I am getting all excited that they're making a series basd on UHF and are going to air it on SciFi. Damn you!
"People taping songs from the radio and assorted other cheapskate stuff have been around for a long time"
Ever wonder why DJs talk over the beginnings and ends of the songs they play?
"And thus we have proof: not all DRM is used for evil purposes. Sometimes it's used for the common good ;)"
Now if only we can DRM away all of Quebec...
Oh, wait, she's touring the US right now. Damn!
"serious pirates just laugh at the stupid copy protection schemes being used (audio patch cord and decent soundcard anyone?)"
Why make it that complicated? Silly ideas like this do nothing to serious pirates because they copy the image of the disc bit-for-bit (including copy protection schemes). This is why, for example, CSS doesn't do a damn thing about all those pirate DVDs coming from Hong Kong.
DRM shouldn't be thought of as "copy prevention" as much as "playback prevention."
"Microsoft at least releases the fixes free."
The title of this thread suggests otherwise, but even if we ignore this you're forgetting the cost of mandatory upgrades. I somehow doubt Microsoft would blatently refuse to support NT 4 before its end-of-life if it had to worry about competitors.
"So it's entirely up to Microsoft whether or not to charge you for the fix to a problem they admit having! Of all the nerve."
Welcome to Microsoft's new "Captive Audience" pricing plan.
Remember kids, this is why monopolies that abuse their powers are bad.
I'm sure the WTO will love this idea just as much as they loved those steel tariffs...
"Perhaps if Timmy the Tooth: Decay Demolisher II was placed on this list there might be some questions behind the reasoning, but a war game?"
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker seems to promote running baddies through with their own sword instead of holding hands and singing Kumbaya. And let's not forget the constant lack of negotiations between Mario and Bowser.
"The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."
We needed half of Mexico to bury our dead?
What are these "laws of thermodynamics" you speak of?
"I wonder what would be the reaction here in
It all depends on why the "poor" country is being bombed, doesn't it? "Just because?" Just about nobody would be happy about that. "To stop the government from slaughtering its own people," on the other hand, is something completely different.
"against the willing of millions of protesters around the world"
Protesters who themselves agree that Sadam's government is slaughtering its own people. Protesters who seem to be OK with acts like this as long as it doesn't affect any other country.
"with no consensus from the United Nations."
A UN which also didn't give consensus to intervening in Cambodia or Rwanda. The only rule that the UN has truly enforced in the past 50 years is "Don't slaughter your neighbor's people." From inception, the UN has been silent on matters of genocide within a member's borders.
"Yes, everybody would be talking about a coward attack, a massacre, a genocide."
I'm sorry, are we talking about current US actions, or Iraqi actions in the past two or three decades?
"I know I will be modded as a troll by people who care more about Nacionalism"
No, the true nationalists are the ones that don't want to interfere in a country's "internal matters," no matter what they are. National Socialism got to where it was not only from internal nationalism ("Yay Germany!"), but also external nationalists who agreed that Germany had a national right to Austria, the Sudetenland, etc.
IMO, the anti-war protesters who are against the war because the Iraqi government poses no (immediate) therat to us are the nationalists in this debate. It shows that the protesters value the lives and livelihoods of their fellow citizens than citizens of a country a world away.
"Poor Iraquies had to suffer Saddam Hussein's - former ally of the US - dictatorship, and now many of them will be killed by the bombings."
Anybody who thinks that more civillians will die as a direct or indirect result of US actions in this war than who would die by Sadam's hand if this invasion didn't happen is a shot-sighted fool. It's a given that not only more Iraqi people will be alive because of this, but also with more personal and collective freedom. By arguing that it would be better to leave Sadam in power than for the US to invade you are holding the US to a double standard (It's more OK for Sadam but not the US) that is based on a nationalist viewpoint (It's more OK for Sadam because he's an Iraqi).
At the very least, we're not the ones actually trying to slaughter civillians.
"Just like it happened with civilians in Alfghanistan, tortured by the Taliban regime and afterwords bombed by the US."
Again, more would have died in continued Taliban rule. And no rational person could argue that the Taliban would have gone away without a fight. And I submit that the US invasion was far less bloody and racist than any potential internal uprising against the Taliban. All Pashtuns probably would have been hearded up and systematically killed, just like what has happened in every other revolution in the world (with one exception).
"Again, some of these Talibans were allies of the US when fighting a prior "evil", the Soviet Union."
"It will bring more terrorism, more hatred, and innocent civilian deaths, once more."
If we do nothing, if we were to suddenly adopt a foreign policy that rese
Are there government minders with the cameramen?
The Iraqi government doesn't want:
"He was a Senator, Stooge. Get with the program."
No, he was Vice President when the DMCA was passed and ratified. The duties of the Vice President mainly involve sticking one's finger up one's nose.
The Apple press release goes on to say that Al Gore's membership on the board will be a unique one. His duties will involve presiding over board meetings and, yet he will only be allowed to cast a vote in the event of a tie between the other members.
Mr. Gore was quoted as saying "Damn it, not again!"
"Wasn't it the government Al Gore helped run that brought us the DMCA?"
How'd he do that? Was the Senate vote tied?
Why not? It's not like he had anything better to do during the period between January 1993 and January 2001.
Were there even any ties in the Senate during then?
Depends on what you mean by "very good." In all science, we can describe the way something works, we can predict the way something works, we can even give it a nifty name ("gravity" "electricity"), but we still know squat about "Why?" Nifty names only answer "How?"
I'm tempted to say that "Why?" is by definition outside the realm of science.
Five words:
I have no floppy drive!
"How about we take a new approach to having students actually give a rat's ass about science or learning in general? The problem isn't textbooks or any 'style' of teaching. It's students who come to school who simply don't care."
How about we take a new approach to having inmates actually give a rat's ass about rehabilitation in general? The problem isn't prison work programs or any 'style' of rehabilitation. It's inmates who are sent to prison who simply don't care.
(and I haven't even touched on your more racist comments)
Could be worse. You could be trying to learn European geography during the late 80's and early 90's.
"and then teach the why and how."
This is science we're talking about. We can answer the "How?" but have no clue on the "Why?" part.
"- no Emacs"
Ah-HAH! Now we know where to send in the crack team of vi ninjas!
At least he's not a pain in the goatse guy's ass.
"Is anyone actually forced to memorize the periodic table these days? Talk about a pointless rote memorization task..."
Compared to what? Compared to rote memorization of multiplication tables? When I ask you "What's twelve times twelve?" do you sit and add twelve twelves in your head, or do you just spit out the answer you had to memorize in grade school?
If grade school is too long ago for you, there's always things like "square and cube roots," "pi to six digits," "trigonometric functions of angles divisible by 15 degrees" and "tables of integration."
Am I picking on the maths too much? "Galilean equations of motion?"
There are times when memorization is both needed and more beneficial than just using a calculator to answer the simplest questions. If you can't do the simple stuff without having to push buttons, you can't be all that useful in figuring out the complicated stuff. It would be cheaper for me to just push my own buttons than to hire you to do it for me.
However, I do agree that memorizing the basics is unfortunately going the way of the dodo. Did you know they now allow TI-89 calculators for AP Calculus exams?
" Poems rhyme and have a regular meter and that's what makes it easier for us to remember"
Somebody not familiar with the works of e. e. cummings, I see. Somewhere in the late ninteent and early twentieth century, the definition of "poem" became "Whatever the author says is a poem."