"The bottom line is that from the Internet's point of view, your ISP and network provider is RoadRunner, so it makes perfect sense to label you as being part of that "organization" in this context. It is both within the letter and spirit of NNTP."
Nonsense. My ISP is merely a contractor selling me the service of forwarding my Usenet aricles into the rest of Usenet. I am not in any way part of their "organization".
"To allow you to use your own vanity Organization header would only add confusion and defeats the spirit of the header."
To use my own "Organization" header reduces confusion by identifying the organization to which I and my machine belong. Replacing it with one which erroneously identifies me as belonging to my ISP adds confusion.
"Since "machine" isn't defined within the RFC, I think there's some latitude to allow Roadrunners practice."
"Machine" refers to the machine on which the article originated. Usenet is a store and forward system that use a flooding algorithm for distribution. RR's server is merely one of the servers in the path from your machine to that of any particular reader. Altering the headers to imply that your article originated on their machine is misleading. The can add 'X' headers for spam tracking.
"Since when has RoadRunner allowed you to run servers?"
An NNTP server does not have to be accessible from outside your network. Lots of people run servers such as leafnode (I use cnews) for convenient off-line news reading. RR cannot tell whether an article is being posted by a server or a client. They will still overwrite the "Organization" line, though.
As another poster suggested, sign up with Newsguy.
"you're not getting a 'product' (watching tv programs) so why should you pay for that product?"
Broadcast television is no more a product than are the words on a billboard.
"its simple. if you don't watch, you don't pay."
But my not watching at all costs the broadcasters exactly as much as does your watching of everything but the commercials: nothing.
"if you don't buy soda, you don't pay for soda."
Bad analogy. Soda is a physical product: every soda I drink is a soda someone else can't. And the soda manufacturers don't pour soda over my head without my permission and then demand payment should I swallow any.
TV broadcasting is an imposition. They blast my property and my person with their rf without my permission. They should be paying me.
"If you watch TV without watching the ads, you are stealing. I would be more than willing to pay in dollars instead of in boredom."
I watch no TV at all, thereby depriving the broadcasters of exactly what an ad-skipper does. Does that men I "owe" $250/year also?
"So what's wrong with that?"
What's wrong with that is that viewers of broadcast TV have no contract with and no obligation to the broadcasters. They have no more right to complain about ad-skipping than the owner of a billboard does about people who look at only part of the billboard.
"Many may think the GPL Preamble to be clear enough, there are a lot of people out there that would like to be able to read the entire license to know exactly what they may be getting into, before they agree to it, and this means being reading the actual license, not just the preamble."
Many who have actually read the GPL understand that merely _using_ GPL software does not involve agreeing to it. From the GPL:
Activities other than copying, distribution and
modification are not covered by this License;
they are outside its scope. The act of running
the Program is not restricted...
"I suppose you could get nitpicky and say that they are "collections of programs", but that's just silly. People know what you mean..."
No they don't. Most people will take "KDE is a program" to mean that KDE is a single program in the sense that they would say "Outlook Express is a program". This is extremely misleading.
"I have friends who are English majors and could explain that KDE, Gnome, and XFree86 are all prograams that may or may not be installed on a particular Linux system."
Good thing they are English majors. KDE, Gnome, and XFree86 are not programs.
"...how is deep linking diffrent than e-mailing it to your friend?"
It is very different. It is more like emailing your friend a message saying "There is an interesting article on page 37 of Time Magazine." You are not copying anything they have an enforceable copyright on.
"Next week Time Magazine will require you to read pages 1-36 before reading the article you want on page 37."
Not quite. They will forbid you to tell your friends that the article is on page 37. You'll have to say "It's in Time Magazine but I'm not allowed to tell you where."
"The IRS makes more money if most folks understand their forms."
Nope. The IRS gets as much money as Congress appropriates for it, regardless of how much it collects in taxes. Voters who can't figure out the forms complain to their congressmen, who threaten cut the agency's budget.
"Software houses, however, -want- people to glaze over and just click yes, because then they can screw them badly [as long as their lawyers are decent, they can defend the 'comprehensibility' aspect far more easily than a user can defend not bothering to even try."
I think they just haven't given it any thought, since there is very little case law in the area as yet. Someday one of them is going to lose a big class-action suit, and then they will all scramble.
"They actively lobby to make these things more complicated, so that people will have to pay them rather than do it themselves."
It's Congress that creates the insanely complex tax code. Considering what they have to work with the IRS does a remarkably good job of making the forms and instructions comprehensible.
"!'m sorry about the old ladies in your town who seem to be MTN Bike magnets, but Jesus H Christ - can someone have some fucking backbone once in a while and watch out for themselves?"
Right. Next time you try to pass me on your mountain bike I'm going to put my cane in your spokes.
Or perhaps I'll just have my horse kick you in the head.
"After all, there is -far- less motivation for the average software company to make EULAs readable than there is for the IRS to make its tax forms readable."
Not true. Incomprehensibility of the forms is no excuse for not paying your taxes, but incomprehensible contracts are in severe danger of being ruled unenforceable.
Give them monochrome monitors, flourescent lights, Muzak, and steel chairs. No cubicles: you need to see what they are up to. Chain them to their desks and if they don't produce give them a touch of the whip. When they do produce reward them by shutting off the Muzak.
In a sparkgap transmitter the spark is used to excite oscillations in a tuned circuit which is coupled to the antenna. The Q of the tuned circuit is made as high as possible so as to minimize the bandwidth. Unfortunately it is not practical to make the Q high enough to prevent radiation of broadband (not wideband) noise and harmonics. However, the energy in the noise and harmonics is wasted. It is a narrowband transmitter that just happens to be rather inefficient.
Slashdot Mirror
"The bottom line is that from the Internet's point of view, your ISP and network provider is RoadRunner, so it makes perfect sense to label you as being part of that "organization" in this context. It is both within the letter and spirit of NNTP."
Nonsense. My ISP is merely a contractor selling me the service of forwarding my Usenet aricles into the rest of Usenet. I am not in any way part of their "organization".
"To allow you to use your own vanity Organization header would only add confusion and defeats the spirit of the header."
To use my own "Organization" header reduces confusion by identifying the organization to which I and my machine belong. Replacing it with one which erroneously identifies me as belonging to my ISP adds confusion.
"Since "machine" isn't defined within the RFC, I think there's some latitude to allow Roadrunners practice."
"Machine" refers to the machine on which the article originated. Usenet is a store and forward system that use a flooding algorithm for distribution. RR's server is merely one of the servers in the path from your machine to that of any particular reader. Altering the headers to imply that your article originated on their machine is misleading. The can add 'X' headers for spam tracking.
"Since when has RoadRunner allowed you to run servers?"
An NNTP server does not have to be accessible from outside your network. Lots of people run servers such as leafnode (I use cnews) for convenient off-line news reading. RR cannot tell whether an article is being posted by a server or a client. They will still overwrite the "Organization" line, though.
As another poster suggested, sign up with Newsguy.
You may be able to collect some damages from X Solutions.
'The Politics of Nerd.' The question is: which vocal, intelligent, bay area and vicinity OS insiders should be on the show?"
With that title, none.
"you're not getting a 'product' (watching tv programs) so why should you pay for that product?"
Broadcast television is no more a product than are the words on a billboard.
"its simple. if you don't watch, you don't pay."
But my not watching at all costs the broadcasters exactly as much as does your watching of everything but the commercials: nothing.
"if you don't buy soda, you don't pay for soda."
Bad analogy. Soda is a physical product: every soda I drink is a soda someone else can't. And the soda manufacturers don't pour soda over my head without my permission and then demand payment should I swallow any.
"Face it, TV broadcasting is a service."
TV broadcasting is an imposition. They blast my property and my person with their rf without my permission. They should be paying me.
"If you watch TV without watching the ads, you are stealing. I would be more than willing to pay in dollars instead of in boredom."
I watch no TV at all, thereby depriving the broadcasters of exactly what an ad-skipper does. Does that men I "owe" $250/year also?
"So what's wrong with that?"
What's wrong with that is that viewers of broadcast TV have no contract with and no obligation to the broadcasters. They have no more right to complain about ad-skipping than the owner of a billboard does about people who look at only part of the billboard.
"...Microsoft will sue Peru...."
_Sue_ them? ROFL. Peru is a _sovereign_ _nation_.
Only Peruvian courts have jurisdiction over what happens in Peru.
"Many may think the GPL Preamble to be clear enough, there are a lot of people out there that would like to be able to read the entire license to know exactly what they may be getting into, before they agree to it, and this means being reading the actual license, not just the preamble."
Many who have actually read the GPL understand that merely _using_ GPL software does not involve agreeing to it. From the GPL:
Activities other than copying, distribution and
modification are not covered by this License;
they are outside its scope. The act of running
the Program is not restricted...
"I suppose you could get nitpicky and say that they are "collections of programs", but that's just silly. People know what you mean..."
No they don't. Most people will take "KDE is a program" to mean that KDE is a single program in the sense that they would say "Outlook Express is a program". This is extremely misleading.
"I have friends who are English majors and could explain that KDE, Gnome, and XFree86 are all prograams that may or may not be installed on a particular Linux system."
Good thing they are English majors. KDE, Gnome, and XFree86 are not programs.
"...how is deep linking diffrent than e-mailing it to your friend?"
It is very different. It is more like emailing your friend a message saying "There is an interesting article on page 37 of Time Magazine." You are not copying anything they have an enforceable copyright on.
"Next week Time Magazine will require you to read pages 1-36 before reading the article you want on page 37."
Not quite. They will forbid you to tell your friends that the article is on page 37. You'll have to say "It's in Time Magazine but I'm not allowed to tell you where."
"The best way to sabatoge that kind of invasive system is to simply feed it bad data."
The best way to sabatoge that kind of invasive system is to simply take your business elsewhere.
And it isn't your grocery store. It is the shareholder's grocery store.
"Given this, one has to wonder why Microsoft bothers to struggle for the last 5% of market share (they'd like to snuff Apple as well as Linux)..."
Because they consider Linux a serious threat. I think they know more about it than you do.
"Like he mentioned - nanotech could "cure" old age. What, then, will we do with the rapid population increase?"
Nothing, because it won't happen. Do the math: it isn't hard.
"And what happens to our rights when an "old" person decides they now want to grow old and die? Suicide is illegal here, might that not also be?"
No. Refusal of medical treatment is legal.
Also, electronics are succeptible to electromagnetic fields.
Everything everywhere is constantly bathed in electromagnetic fields, yet electronic devices continue to work anyway. It isn't that simple.
"No MRIs for the people with nanotech running around inside them."
That doesn't follow.
As a general rule, everything written about nanotech by both the enthusiasts and the "concerned" is horseshit.
"The IRS makes more money if most folks understand their forms."
Nope. The IRS gets as much money as Congress appropriates for it, regardless of how much it collects in taxes. Voters who can't figure out the forms complain to their congressmen, who threaten cut the agency's budget.
"Software houses, however, -want- people to glaze over and just click yes, because then they can screw them badly [as long as their lawyers are decent, they can defend the 'comprehensibility' aspect far more easily than a user can defend not bothering to even try."
I think they just haven't given it any thought, since there is very little case law in the area as yet. Someday one of them is going to lose a big class-action suit, and then they will all scramble.
"They actively lobby to make these things more complicated, so that people will have to pay them rather than do it themselves."
It's Congress that creates the insanely complex tax code. Considering what they have to work with the IRS does a remarkably good job of making the forms and instructions comprehensible.
"!'m sorry about the old ladies in your town who seem to be MTN Bike magnets, but Jesus H Christ - can someone have some fucking backbone once in a while and watch out for themselves?"
Right. Next time you try to pass me on your mountain bike I'm going to put my cane in your spokes.
Or perhaps I'll just have my horse kick you in the head.
"After all, there is -far- less motivation for the average software company to make EULAs readable than there is for the IRS to make its tax forms readable."
Not true. Incomprehensibility of the forms is no excuse for not paying your taxes, but incomprehensible contracts are in severe danger of being ruled unenforceable.
Give them monochrome monitors, flourescent lights, Muzak, and steel chairs. No cubicles: you need to see what they are up to. Chain them to their desks and if they don't produce give them a touch of the whip. When they do produce reward them by shutting off the Muzak.
And I _do_ go home and write Free Software at night.
"Smart people trust no one, especially midsized software companies."
Then why are you willing to install their software?
You can't trust them with an email address and yet it's safe to give them root?
In a sparkgap transmitter the spark is used to excite oscillations in a tuned circuit which is coupled to the antenna. The Q of the tuned circuit is made as high as possible so as to minimize the bandwidth. Unfortunately it is not practical to make the Q high enough to prevent radiation of broadband (not wideband) noise and harmonics. However, the energy in the noise and harmonics is wasted. It is a narrowband transmitter that just happens to be rather inefficient.
How boring. When I saw the headline I visulized a _real_ jukebox, filled with CD's.