"I mean back in the 80's we were look down upon as these social misfits. Now hackers and programmers are looked up to as "Gurus" and "Experts". "
Yeah, we used to be the misfits who other people convinced to do their math homework. Now they ask nicely. Ten years later, I'm still a human calculator. Big whoop.:)
Also the media gives alot of attention to these virus creators and to their arrests etc... "
I'm not sure if they give them all that attention because of the people involved, or because it's yet another jab at Microsoft Outlook. Today, people like "sticking it to the man," and the media caters to this desire.
"Personally, I think as long as PC's are a major part of our everyday life the power of "Geekhood" will be respected. "
This will only last as long as our ability to tinker with the insides of things. Once the set-top box becomes a reality and open-architecture PCs fade into the past, it'll be back to normal.
"It just seems that these kids are all headed in the direction of programming, and computer related subjects. "
Ehhhh... being interested is one thing; being interested enough for a career is something completely different. As much as I like tinkering with computers, I can't see an IT job as anything but a living nightmare. Think of all the people who like working on cars but aren't professional mechanics.
Kudos to you for having your own IP. Me, I'm renting one from BellSouth at the moment, and they'll take it away from me as soon as I hang up my modem. Even when I lived someplace that had DSL, though, the IP wasn't all that static. If the service hiccups, there goes the old IP. You need a static IP to be able to really host information on the web.
"Whether this is a good or bad thing I'm not sure."
Let's see... Free internet use depends on free processor cycles. I'd assume that you'd get more free stuff if you have more free cycles to give to the company. Everybody knows that the latest Windows versions are processor hogs. Users will then have to decide between free internet access or the latest product from Redmond.
That'd be an interesting fight to see... Microsoft vs. ISPs.:)
While my TI-92 Plus can handle that just fine, most calculators can't. Even sliderules use tenths, with maybe 3.14159 thrown in for effect.
Re:Ha! Metric unit of mass is still a chunk of met
on
Uncle Sam's Funhouse
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· Score: 1
"The metric system is linked : a liter of pure water weights exactly 1 kilogram... "
Only at around 4 degrees C. All bets are off for different temperatures, and it has to be 100% pure. If you have to be that precise, I don't see the point in linking them.
... and that sentence highlights another of my problems with the metric system: the unit of force in SI is the Newton, not the kilogram. The US seems to be one of the few places in the world that knows enough to use force units in weights instead of mass. And I could argue that "kilograms of force" is as unwieldy if not more so than using slugs and pounds.
"Yep, but I'd rather use units that have less multiples but have 100 as one of them"
Multiples of 10 are fine if you only want to deal with decimals. But how do you write out a third of a kilometer? 333.333333333333333333333333... meters? 1760 feet (exact) is much more managable. One-sixth? That would be 166.666666666666666... meters for a kilometer, or 880 feet (exact) for a mile.
Forcing the use of decimals to avoid fractions is only beneficial to those that flunked that part of grade school.
"that a unit that have more multiples but only ones like "176 or 165" like your miles. How often do you count in base 176 exactly ?"
Then you are trying to force the universe into your base 10 system, instead of adjusting your system to the universe. Using numbers with more multiples allows more flexibility in getting a precise measurement.
"No - it's the raw liquid most commonly available on earth, and almost the only one."
By that argument, then, we should use a system that is based on SEAwater, not pure water. And what's the freezing point of seawater? 0 degrees Farenheit.
"Liquid hydrogen or nitrogen is not easy to find,"
The easiest way to get 100% pure water is to make it from pure hydrogen and oxygen. And if you already have the hydrogen handy...
And, on the other hand, while not all that abundant on Earth, hydrogen is hands-down the most common substance in the universe. So shouldn't we be using it by your own arguments?
"centigrades are based on freezing and boiling point of pure water at sea level. That's a unit fairly easy to understand for anyone on earth, as long as you know how to make a fire and have an idea of what ice looks like."
... and have an accurate barometer to tell you when it's exactly 101325 Pascals, and a filtration device set up to get perfectly pure water. At least Farenheit lets you go down to the beach to get your water.
"No it doesn't. Really."
So 32.2 is an inherently more difficult number to learn than 9.86? 14.7 is more difficult than 101325? 93 million harder than 149 million? 2.997 E 8 is worse than 9.835 E 8? 491.67 makes less sense than 273.15?
"But my everyday number is 10. Mastering multiplication/division by 10 is all you need to manipulate ALL metric units. You can use your fingers for all of them. Can't be easier than that."
... until you start trying to apply it to the real world. 2 and 5 may be useful in some measurements, but once you come across, say, biological phenomena that is based on different Fibonacci numbers (3 or 8, for example), trying to force everything into base 10 measurements turn out to be pretty limiting. By using measurement systems that include more primes as divisors (even if it's just the addition of 3), you're giving yourself more room to manuever in which to state a measurement with precision instead of an approximate decimal.
And finally, the foot-pound-second system is more durable and reproducable than the SI system. If I don't have a ruler (or a cesium clock and a Michaelson interferometer) handy, knowing that the foot was originally based on the average length of a man's foot will help me make better estimates. Knowing that the meter was originally based on the circumference of the Earth as measured along the line of longitude through Paris, France does almost nothing for me.
... and this was labeled "insightful" instead of "flamebait?"
"shows that their old theories are nothing but bunk. "
Yeah, we keep on changing our tune every few years or so. It's amazing how far off-the-mark Newton was with his laws of motion and gravitation. It's a miracle that the Saturn V reached the moon using his laws.
"science sings a different song every couple of years or so,"
At least in science we CAN change our minds. That's the whole point of it. We can accept other peoples' points of view when they're able to back it up with undeniable proof (note the use of the word 'undeniable.') When was the last time somebody argued with the Bible and won? It took the Catholic Church almost 400 years to admit Galileo was right, almost 20 years after the Apollo missions.
On the other hand, if science is so weak as to change drasticly every few months, then explain how your monitor works when it's based on a century-old theory like relativity. If Einstein was completely off-the-mark, then the electrons in your cathode ray tube would really be travelling faster than light, the formulas the monitor's manufacturer used to make your monitor would all be off, the circuitry would be aiming electrons at the wrong pixels, and you wouldn't have your precious 1600x1200 resolution.
And that's before we start talking about how old the electron theory that allows your computer to work is. If 150+ year-old theory that says electricity is delivered in particles is all wrong, then transistors and even diodes shouldn't work. So much for the internet. I hope you know how to use a sliderule...
But, hey, if you think science is all bunk, that's your perrogative. Just don't try to force your "If it's in the book, it must be right" POV on the rest of us. And try not to be such a hipocrite about it next time.
If Microsoft owns all the rights to all the mail that goes through the Hotmail system, what does this say about the sex site spam I always seem to get from @hotmail.com? Could this be turned around to put any and all blame for that squarely on Microsoft?
1.) How un-funny it is
OR
2.) How it's true.
At least, out of all the 04/01 stories on here, this one is factual. The moon really is losing speed due to tidal forces, and setting up dykes and levies and things like that really is slowing down the moon that much more. On the other hand, I'd say it's a toss-up of whether the moon will fall on us because of that first, or if the sun will go nova before-hand. Either way, we'll either be advanced enough to not consider it a problem, or be extinct as a species.
Still, I really do miss the news. For what it's worth, the site might as well be down today, there really wouldn't be much of a difference.
How else do you think they got Windows 2000 to be so rock solid? It runs better than Lunix.
Ummm... no, it doesn't. I've been using Win2K Pro for about two weeks now, and I've had more problems than the 4-5 months I've used Linux in. I'm seroiusly missing it.
Also, when all is said and done, Microsoft's philosophy in operating systems is planned obsolesence. If they got it right the first time in Windows 4.0, how could they make money with 4.1, or the new 4.9? The fact that they call these tiny increments "95," "98," and "ME" in order to hide how little they've improved should be proof enough of this. Linux coders, on the other hand, tend to be very conservative when they declare something "1.0." Using Linux code that gets it right the first time doesn't work well with Microsoft's current practices.
Force them to submit all their code as evidence, that way it's publically available.
Um... you got it backwards. Microsoft is the accused, so we'd have to be the ones to prove their guilt. Innocent until proven guilty, not vice versa.
In order to prove their guilt (if this were true), you'd have to reverse-engineer their stuff and violate their own liscencing agreement. So this whole thing is a Catch-22.
... the boots I saw on CNN a few months ago made by some Russian aerospace engineers. Gasoline cylinders instead of springs. IIRC, one could get up to around 40 MPH with the stride those things would give you.
"The same government that is slavering over the lucrative uses of e-currency doesn't like it when an old technology such as credit cards comes into contact with electronic currency creates crime. "
As far as the Feds are concerned, e-currency, credit cards, direct deposit, it's all the same. It means that they have to spend less on paper and physical safeguards, making the dollar cheaper to "print," and raising the value of it that much more.
The IRS, the ATF, Elliot Ness's famous Untouchables, and even the Secret Service: All very good reasons why the #1 rule never to break is "Don't fuck with the Treasury Department."
As with all flame wars, this is wandering off-topic (I admit it's partly my fault). The brunt of my argument, though...
"it was perfectly legal for the Nazis to murder 12-13 million people in Nazi occupied europe."
No, it was not. Those actions (and several others on the part of the Germans) violated both the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the Geneva Conventions of 1929. Both of those dates are before the war in Europe started, both of those pieces of papers were signed by the German government, so the tribunal was within its power to try these people. If the German government of the time had not signed a piece of paper saying "We will not do this, and if we do, we consent to be tried by X court, and to be punished by Y methods if found guilty," then there would not have been anything the Allies could have done.
There is no precedent for what you are suggesting, and Congress would be acting in an unconstitutional manner for ratifying such a treaty.
"the international agreement makes those red Nikes of your verboten on mondays. "
First off, this law sounds "unusual" in an 8th Amendment kind of way.
Sencond, this affects me only if my country's government was idiotic enough to ratify that particular treaty, or I travel to another such idiotic country. International law still can't do anything national law doesn't allow it to do.
... under state law, depending on your state. Nowhere in the U. S. Code does it say that libel is illegal. In fact, any such law would be unconstitutional (they mean it when they say "Congress shall make NO law...")
This, on the other hand, was a federal case. It's not about freedom of speech, it was about whether the list was a direct threat or not. The judge ruled it wasn't. That's all. He didn't say whether it was legal under state law to say what they said (which would be outside of his power since, again, that's a state law), nor did he say it wasn't an invasion of privacy. All he said was "It's not a direct threat, so there's nothing in the FEDERAL law that says it's bad."
"Will someone PLEASE set up a website with the names of the judges, their addresses, telephone numbers, license plates, etc., as see if they want to review their opinion?"
If you want the names of judges, go check out the Congressional records. Judges are appointed by the Prez and dickered over by Congress, so each and every federal juge on the bench has been in a (very public) Congressional hearing. As for the rest (minus liscence plates), the rest of the information is in the public domain (read "telephone book.")
"In the US, you are correct. Ex post facto would protect them from prosecution, however international courts have no such prohibitions. "
... which means nothing. International law only operates within the bounds of national law, not the other way around. The trials you speak of would not have happened if the Germans hadn't signed onto the Geneva Conventions and other international treaties before the war.
We're not living on a Federal Earth yet (thank God...).
"You are in favor of people doing something that definately causes the death of a human, but are opposed to people doing something that maybe, might have, could have, encourged someone else to cause the death of a human. "
Depends on where you define "human," don't it? By some defintions, I may be committing canibalism by biting my nails, or suicide by trying to kill cancerous cells.
"You would have responded "You republican kooks just don't get it, keep your laws off of our slaves!" "
If you're trying to equate a woman's body with what was essentially considered a matter of property laws, then prostitution should be legal.
Let's fast-forward a bit to the whole Bobbit case (as painful as that might be:) ). Let's say that they found Bobbit's equipment, and it can be re-attached, but a law prevents it from being re-attached for nine months. Wouldn't you think that the government was being a bit intrusive?
Apples and oranges? What if the woman got pregnant due to rape?
"The Nuremberg Files web page had the stated goal of compiling information about abortion providers so that in the future if and when abortion becomes illegal they can be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. "
IIRC, it wasn't that the list listed all these people, but that the names of the murdered doctors and patients were crossed off the list (as opposed to being deleted). It took on the air of a checklist.
Besides, laws don't work that way. If something becomes illegal, it's only illegal after the point it was passed. If it didn't work that way, can you imagine how may people would be in jail after they raised the minimum drinking age to 21?
Your argument doesn't hold water.
"if you were truly "pro-choice" you'd be fighing for free universal birth control."
You got your wires crossed somewhere. Pro-choicers do want birth control, and tend to consider abortion as a worst-case scenario. The pro-lifers tend to be religiously driven, and are hence the ones anti-contraceptive. Your error is also evident in your earlier slavery analogy. The Republicans tend to be pro-life, and the Democrats pro-choice.
"If PETA had a web page that listed beef distributors and their personal information, there would be no outrage. "
On the other hand, animal rights people tend not to build pipe bombs. And, again, the issue wasn't the list itself, but how the murder victims were "check off."
In general, looking at your utter confusion, I hope you're in the half of US citizens that don't vote...
The question is, though, who would this really affect? Certainly not me. The last time I bought a CD was two years ago or so when I heard some really obscure stuff on ImagineRadio (before the RIAA went and killed it... *sob*). Other than that, my music tastes are such that I really haven't felt the need to buy any of the hyped-up stuff that has been force down our throats in the past three or four years. I doubt anybody reading this was one of the people standing in line at their local Best Buy's waiting to get their copy of the latest Britney Spears or Backstreet Boys album.
Copy-proof CDs may be all well and good for new albums, but what about the umpteen-million CDs already out there that aren't protected like this? Even a year after this is implemented, they'll be lucky if these CDs cover 5% of the shelf-space that the non-protected CDs have. On top of that, with the MP3 format so widely-spread, people now know that they no longer have to pay $20 for one song they like and 14 they could live without. Copy protection is just one more reason not to buy. If anything, this will help MP3s.
Anyway, the majority of my MP3s seem to be songs about as old as I am (currently listening to a tune from "Tommy"). The only way I could buy fewer CDs is if I started selling the few I have. I'd like to help with a boycott, but...
With Microsoft being the large uber-corporation that it is, it's been rather difficult getting a straight answer on Microsoft's position on Linux. One executive says one thing, another says something different, and it's difficult to gague who is really speaking for the company. How does Microsoft really feel about the development and acceptance of GNU/Linux?
1.) The Canadian National tower is the world's tallest structure. It doesn't have occupied floors all up and down its interior. It's a essentially glorified TV antenna.
2.) IMO, the Petronas Towers is essentially ripping-off the Sears Tower in the World's Tallest category. The Sears Tower has more occupied floors and the heighets occupied floor. As can be seen from a side-by-side to-scale comparison here, the only reason the Petronas Tower is considered tallier is that the antenna on top is considered to be part of the art-deco cap, while the antennae on the Sears Tower aren't.
So, now we have proof that architecs (sp?) smoke crack!:)
It's not so much that I don't like having to pay for streaming content, it's that I don't want to have to pay for streaming content of MLB. Over-paid, under-worked, with stadiums bank-rolled by taxpayers that may not even follow the sport. If this were a fully self-funded sport like NASCAR I'd have no problem at all.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, we used to be the misfits who other people convinced to do their math homework. Now they ask nicely. Ten years later, I'm still a human calculator. Big whoop. :)
Also the media gives alot of attention to these virus creators and to their arrests etc... "
I'm not sure if they give them all that attention because of the people involved, or because it's yet another jab at Microsoft Outlook. Today, people like "sticking it to the man," and the media caters to this desire.
"Personally, I think as long as PC's are a major part of our everyday life the power of "Geekhood" will be respected. "
This will only last as long as our ability to tinker with the insides of things. Once the set-top box becomes a reality and open-architecture PCs fade into the past, it'll be back to normal.
"It just seems that these kids are all headed in the direction of programming, and computer related subjects. "
Ehhhh... being interested is one thing; being interested enough for a career is something completely different. As much as I like tinkering with computers, I can't see an IT job as anything but a living nightmare. Think of all the people who like working on cars but aren't professional mechanics.
Am I the only one that sees something ironic about having hacker movies on DVD?
Kudos to you for having your own IP. Me, I'm renting one from BellSouth at the moment, and they'll take it away from me as soon as I hang up my modem. Even when I lived someplace that had DSL, though, the IP wasn't all that static. If the service hiccups, there goes the old IP. You need a static IP to be able to really host information on the web.
Let's see... Free internet use depends on free processor cycles. I'd assume that you'd get more free stuff if you have more free cycles to give to the company. Everybody knows that the latest Windows versions are processor hogs. Users will then have to decide between free internet access or the latest product from Redmond.
That'd be an interesting fight to see... Microsoft vs. ISPs. :)
While my TI-92 Plus can handle that just fine, most calculators can't. Even sliderules use tenths, with maybe 3.14159 thrown in for effect.
Only at around 4 degrees C. All bets are off for different temperatures, and it has to be 100% pure. If you have to be that precise, I don't see the point in linking them.
"Yep, but I'd rather use units that have less multiples but have 100 as one of them"
Multiples of 10 are fine if you only want to deal with decimals. But how do you write out a third of a kilometer? 333.333333333333333333333333... meters? 1760 feet (exact) is much more managable. One-sixth? That would be 166.666666666666666... meters for a kilometer, or 880 feet (exact) for a mile.
Forcing the use of decimals to avoid fractions is only beneficial to those that flunked that part of grade school.
"that a unit that have more multiples but only ones like "176 or 165" like your miles. How often do you count in base 176 exactly ?"
Then you are trying to force the universe into your base 10 system, instead of adjusting your system to the universe. Using numbers with more multiples allows more flexibility in getting a precise measurement.
"No - it's the raw liquid most commonly available on earth, and almost the only one."
By that argument, then, we should use a system that is based on SEAwater, not pure water. And what's the freezing point of seawater? 0 degrees Farenheit.
"Liquid hydrogen or nitrogen is not easy to find,"
The easiest way to get 100% pure water is to make it from pure hydrogen and oxygen. And if you already have the hydrogen handy...
And, on the other hand, while not all that abundant on Earth, hydrogen is hands-down the most common substance in the universe. So shouldn't we be using it by your own arguments?
"centigrades are based on freezing and boiling point of pure water at sea level. That's a unit fairly easy to understand for anyone on earth, as long as you know how to make a fire and have an idea of what ice looks like."
"No it doesn't. Really."
So 32.2 is an inherently more difficult number to learn than 9.86? 14.7 is more difficult than 101325? 93 million harder than 149 million? 2.997 E 8 is worse than 9.835 E 8? 491.67 makes less sense than 273.15?
"But my everyday number is 10. Mastering multiplication/division by 10 is all you need to manipulate ALL metric units. You can use your fingers for all of them. Can't be easier than that."
And finally, the foot-pound-second system is more durable and reproducable than the SI system. If I don't have a ruler (or a cesium clock and a Michaelson interferometer) handy, knowing that the foot was originally based on the average length of a man's foot will help me make better estimates. Knowing that the meter was originally based on the circumference of the Earth as measured along the line of longitude through Paris, France does almost nothing for me.
"shows that their old theories are nothing but bunk. "
Yeah, we keep on changing our tune every few years or so. It's amazing how far off-the-mark Newton was with his laws of motion and gravitation. It's a miracle that the Saturn V reached the moon using his laws.
"science sings a different song every couple of years or so,"
At least in science we CAN change our minds. That's the whole point of it. We can accept other peoples' points of view when they're able to back it up with undeniable proof (note the use of the word 'undeniable.') When was the last time somebody argued with the Bible and won? It took the Catholic Church almost 400 years to admit Galileo was right, almost 20 years after the Apollo missions.
On the other hand, if science is so weak as to change drasticly every few months, then explain how your monitor works when it's based on a century-old theory like relativity. If Einstein was completely off-the-mark, then the electrons in your cathode ray tube would really be travelling faster than light, the formulas the monitor's manufacturer used to make your monitor would all be off, the circuitry would be aiming electrons at the wrong pixels, and you wouldn't have your precious 1600x1200 resolution.
And that's before we start talking about how old the electron theory that allows your computer to work is. If 150+ year-old theory that says electricity is delivered in particles is all wrong, then transistors and even diodes shouldn't work. So much for the internet. I hope you know how to use a sliderule...
But, hey, if you think science is all bunk, that's your perrogative. Just don't try to force your "If it's in the book, it must be right" POV on the rest of us. And try not to be such a hipocrite about it next time.
If Microsoft owns all the rights to all the mail that goes through the Hotmail system, what does this say about the sex site spam I always seem to get from @hotmail.com? Could this be turned around to put any and all blame for that squarely on Microsoft?
Still, I really do miss the news. For what it's worth, the site might as well be down today, there really wouldn't be much of a difference.
Obviously, then, Windows has already been using similar technologies for years...
Ummm... no, it doesn't. I've been using Win2K Pro for about two weeks now, and I've had more problems than the 4-5 months I've used Linux in. I'm seroiusly missing it.
Also, when all is said and done, Microsoft's philosophy in operating systems is planned obsolesence. If they got it right the first time in Windows 4.0, how could they make money with 4.1, or the new 4.9? The fact that they call these tiny increments "95," "98," and "ME" in order to hide how little they've improved should be proof enough of this. Linux coders, on the other hand, tend to be very conservative when they declare something "1.0." Using Linux code that gets it right the first time doesn't work well with Microsoft's current practices.
Um... you got it backwards. Microsoft is the accused, so we'd have to be the ones to prove their guilt. Innocent until proven guilty, not vice versa.
In order to prove their guilt (if this were true), you'd have to reverse-engineer their stuff and violate their own liscencing agreement. So this whole thing is a Catch-22.
... the boots I saw on CNN a few months ago made by some Russian aerospace engineers. Gasoline cylinders instead of springs. IIRC, one could get up to around 40 MPH with the stride those things would give you.
As far as the Feds are concerned, e-currency, credit cards, direct deposit, it's all the same. It means that they have to spend less on paper and physical safeguards, making the dollar cheaper to "print," and raising the value of it that much more.
The IRS, the ATF, Elliot Ness's famous Untouchables, and even the Secret Service: All very good reasons why the #1 rule never to break is "Don't fuck with the Treasury Department."
"It fell off the back of a truck!"
"it was perfectly legal for the Nazis to murder 12-13 million people in Nazi occupied europe."
No, it was not. Those actions (and several others on the part of the Germans) violated both the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the Geneva Conventions of 1929. Both of those dates are before the war in Europe started, both of those pieces of papers were signed by the German government, so the tribunal was within its power to try these people. If the German government of the time had not signed a piece of paper saying "We will not do this, and if we do, we consent to be tried by X court, and to be punished by Y methods if found guilty," then there would not have been anything the Allies could have done.
There is no precedent for what you are suggesting, and Congress would be acting in an unconstitutional manner for ratifying such a treaty.
First off, this law sounds "unusual" in an 8th Amendment kind of way.
Sencond, this affects me only if my country's government was idiotic enough to ratify that particular treaty, or I travel to another such idiotic country. International law still can't do anything national law doesn't allow it to do.
This, on the other hand, was a federal case. It's not about freedom of speech, it was about whether the list was a direct threat or not. The judge ruled it wasn't. That's all. He didn't say whether it was legal under state law to say what they said (which would be outside of his power since, again, that's a state law), nor did he say it wasn't an invasion of privacy. All he said was "It's not a direct threat, so there's nothing in the FEDERAL law that says it's bad."
"Will someone PLEASE set up a website with the names of the judges, their addresses, telephone numbers, license plates, etc., as see if they want to review their opinion?"
If you want the names of judges, go check out the Congressional records. Judges are appointed by the Prez and dickered over by Congress, so each and every federal juge on the bench has been in a (very public) Congressional hearing. As for the rest (minus liscence plates), the rest of the information is in the public domain (read "telephone book.")
We're not living on a Federal Earth yet (thank God...).
Depends on where you define "human," don't it? By some defintions, I may be committing canibalism by biting my nails, or suicide by trying to kill cancerous cells.
"You would have responded "You republican kooks just don't get it, keep your laws off of our slaves!" "
If you're trying to equate a woman's body with what was essentially considered a matter of property laws, then prostitution should be legal.
Let's fast-forward a bit to the whole Bobbit case (as painful as that might be :) ). Let's say that they found Bobbit's equipment, and it can be re-attached, but a law prevents it from being re-attached for nine months. Wouldn't you think that the government was being a bit intrusive?
Apples and oranges? What if the woman got pregnant due to rape?
"The Nuremberg Files web page had the stated goal of compiling information about abortion providers so that in the future if and when abortion becomes illegal they can be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. "
IIRC, it wasn't that the list listed all these people, but that the names of the murdered doctors and patients were crossed off the list (as opposed to being deleted). It took on the air of a checklist.
Besides, laws don't work that way. If something becomes illegal, it's only illegal after the point it was passed. If it didn't work that way, can you imagine how may people would be in jail after they raised the minimum drinking age to 21?
Your argument doesn't hold water.
"if you were truly "pro-choice" you'd be fighing for free universal birth control."
You got your wires crossed somewhere. Pro-choicers do want birth control, and tend to consider abortion as a worst-case scenario. The pro-lifers tend to be religiously driven, and are hence the ones anti-contraceptive. Your error is also evident in your earlier slavery analogy. The Republicans tend to be pro-life, and the Democrats pro-choice.
"If PETA had a web page that listed beef distributors and their personal information, there would be no outrage. "
On the other hand, animal rights people tend not to build pipe bombs. And, again, the issue wasn't the list itself, but how the murder victims were "check off."
In general, looking at your utter confusion, I hope you're in the half of US citizens that don't vote...
Copy-proof CDs may be all well and good for new albums, but what about the umpteen-million CDs already out there that aren't protected like this? Even a year after this is implemented, they'll be lucky if these CDs cover 5% of the shelf-space that the non-protected CDs have. On top of that, with the MP3 format so widely-spread, people now know that they no longer have to pay $20 for one song they like and 14 they could live without. Copy protection is just one more reason not to buy. If anything, this will help MP3s.
Anyway, the majority of my MP3s seem to be songs about as old as I am (currently listening to a tune from "Tommy"). The only way I could buy fewer CDs is if I started selling the few I have. I'd like to help with a boycott, but...
With Microsoft being the large uber-corporation that it is, it's been rather difficult getting a straight answer on Microsoft's position on Linux. One executive says one thing, another says something different, and it's difficult to gague who is really speaking for the company. How does Microsoft really feel about the development and acceptance of GNU/Linux?
2.) IMO, the Petronas Towers is essentially ripping-off the Sears Tower in the World's Tallest category. The Sears Tower has more occupied floors and the heighets occupied floor. As can be seen from a side-by-side to-scale comparison here, the only reason the Petronas Tower is considered tallier is that the antenna on top is considered to be part of the art-deco cap, while the antennae on the Sears Tower aren't.
So, now we have proof that architecs (sp?) smoke crack! :)
It's not so much that I don't like having to pay for streaming content, it's that I don't want to have to pay for streaming content of MLB. Over-paid, under-worked, with stadiums bank-rolled by taxpayers that may not even follow the sport. If this were a fully self-funded sport like NASCAR I'd have no problem at all.