I also think it's kind of funny and sad how unremarkable your comment "we obviously can't trust the government" is. I totally agree, but it's kind of sad that it's such a given. I daresay people would trust Microsoft as a key repository before the government, which is a pretty sad state of affairs.
Governments have coercive power. They own a monopoly on violence in a geographic area. Microsoft does not. Also, the 20th Century shows that you cannot trust governments as they are currently configured (ie, large central powerful states).
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Who need's to disconnect?
I've just got a 28.8 modem, and if there's anything big (or a bunch of them) I want to download I just add them to a script ("getem"!) using wget that I'll run when I'm done using the net. If anything fails wget can continue from where it stopped if there was any error.
I think most ISP's (like mine) will disconnect you anyway after enough dead time - I can't think I've ever seen the connection still up in the morning.
I started an Oracle download at 10pm. I got up about 7am and it was still going...still connected. 650MB, take that, QWEST, and smoke it!
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But at the end of the day you're still working to make someone else rich. Salary + options slavery vs wage slavery. It's still slavery
Slavery is where you own the fruits of your own labor. If someone else does, they basically own you. So in the US, the land of the free, uh, er, the _freakin' Government_ owns us!
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I would like to implement a per-bit toll on the stuff going through my property. Bill Gates is talking to me about helping me with it. He's drooling though, you think it's from using Windows point-and-drool interface?
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Re:I'm ashamed to admit it
on
Voyager Eulogy
·
· Score: 1
But it's not a federation restriction, it's allegedly a physics restriction.
I thought the speed of light (c) was the physical limit. What is this "warp" I keep hearing about?
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Re:I'm ashamed to admit it
on
Voyager Eulogy
·
· Score: 1
How did you get 3 insightful?
The warp 5 limitation was cause warp drives were tearing the fabric of space time.
Going at high warp speeds doesn't send you back in time. Going faster than warp 10 theoretically would (in the star trek universe).
The real reason for the limitation: all the on-board Windows boxes blue screen at anything above Warp 5. --
Re:High Warp Restriction?
on
Voyager Eulogy
·
· Score: 1
Which only goes to show that letting contemporary political issues seep into the framework of a science fiction series is a bad idea in the first place. Sci fi sucks when it doesn't bother to create interesting worlds out of conjecture, but merely transplants the present into technicological drag.
Excellent point, but you should extend it to include just about everything Hollywood makes today. Every era seems to be dealing with all the exact same issues that are important to the folks over in Hollywood, CA. It shows a terrible emptiness in imagination, and they end up hectoring us relentless on the proper way to think--very boring in the end.
The good stuff, rare as it is, doesn't do that.
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Usenet is exteremly popular, if a profit can be made from it, then Google has the right to make one. They can charge you a fee if they want, you don't have to go there. An example, if you decided to post an entire prog that you yourself created, Google owns it. What you say on Google, they own it.
So if you post the DeCSS code via Google, whom do the laywers target? If not Google, what if we _all_ posted it using Google?
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Everytime I turn around, it seems like I read a letter to the editor from RMS making a distinction between open source and free software, or between the Linux kernel and the GNU/Linux operating system. By constantly using his position as a (semi-)celebrity to associate himself with one small, relatively radical subset of open source movement in general, I think he may alienate some folks out there.
The GPL exists because of RMS--his stance on software liberty is principled and consistent. Should expect him to sell out so that he doesn't alienate a few drones out there? Should he be the politician and do some bootlicking, and modify the GPL? He already states that people are free to use the license and software they want to. He's not using the coercive power of the government to make people use the GPL.
If it's so important not to alienate anyone, let's just pack it up, go home, and change all our sigs to "Microsoft roolz!" Anyway, you can bet there will be people in that audience that would be alienated by TUX if he were there.
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No one is going to produce anything that said 39.95 was for a lifetime and to anyone who actually believed a 6 month contact was forever ? Well sometimes you just have to stop and think before you believe.
The "lifetime" mentioned was not that of humans, but of some summer moths. That was somewhere in the fine print, I am sure of it. --
This sort of shit is only necessary in a world where parents have spent the previous however-many years of their child's life ignoring them 99.98% of the time and teaching them that the last thing in the world they should do is communicate honestly with their parents.
You need more control over your kids? Try having a bit of LOVE for them, dumbshit!
Isn't it funny how those of us who _know_ technology know better than to think that technology is the panacea. Those who don't are easily susceptible to the siren song: "This technology will solve the problem". --
I just got my notice for my 20-year high school reunion. I remember back as a senior, I put down "World Domination" as my life goal (I am serious, I wrote that, I just hadn't figured out how I'd get there). Of course, Linux came along, and I jumped at the chance to make it happen, or at least ride Linus' coattails to glory. Now this guy comes along and tells me that all my Linux/UNIX skills are worthless for my goal! I am crushed. Is he right? Should I give up the dream? Is there any hope? Or should I just change my goals to "get a faster CPU"? Anybody have any advice? ("Get a life" I've already thought about...) --
How can somebody make a profit selling below cost at all times?
Maybe they could set themselves up as a government program, and plunder the populace. Hey, if they're a failure, it's because they didn't get enough funding and maybe they could get more money and keep the subsidized failure going for a few more years. Think of the lost jobs if they shut it down! It's for the children!
The only reason that I ever order from Amazon is because they stock those "slow-selling" books that I would have to special order from my local store. I don't want to pay extra for shipping (then wait for the book to arrive) when I can go to a local retail bookstore and buy the same "fast-selling" book and browse other new books.
I typically only buy the slow-sellers--I am particularly interested in unpopular history (i.e, stuff not written by Court Intellectuals who are Lapdog Apologists For the Regime's Received Wisdom [tm] ). Nice to know I'm helping keep Amazon going. I do have an obscure book on order from Borders, but after four years of waiting, I think it's toast--never heard a thing from them about it. I did get it from Amazon 3-1/2 years ago.
But there is nothing quite like the rush of wandering through bookstacks and thumbing through new books.
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In my opinion, the GPL is intended to build a strong software community at the expense of a strong commercial software business model.
Whether this is a bad thing or not is open to debate.
The GPL doesn't build a powerful, centralized authority which can influence the government (i.e. "force") to privilege them in certain ways.
A large corporation is a centralized, powerful entity (which is why it finds the government so easy to cozy up to) which can and typically does influence the government so that it receives certain privileges that others don't. (That is why all these big companies try to sic the gov't on each other: get privilege for my company, get some hamstringing restrictions on them.)
And the GPL community is a threat to Large MultiNational Corporations Working Hand-In-Glove with Government. We're decentralized, we're hard to control, and we don't bow the knee to the corporate state. Problem is, when we get really organized, we get power and start becoming one of those large corporations who buddy up to government power.
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What's REALLY Important Here
on
Linux and Shrek
·
· Score: 2
They're using Linux. They hacked on the kernel. What else is there? Minesweeper, perhaps? I mean, my grandmother is a kernel hacker--this is the 21st Century! Who needs apps?
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I agree with most of your points. There is a definite need for a police force. My concern is that the aim of the police force is becoming to make sure there is a police force, rather than to protect and serve.
OK, this is a _bit_ offtopic...
I took a short course given by a couple of Atlanta police officers. The topic: self-defense with a gun (we went out to the range and shot at targets, too). They said the term "protect and serve" is a bunch of hooey, they don't stand around guarding you, they show up to write the crime report. I liked these guys, they even handed out copies of the pertinent state laws on using lethal force for self-defense, and said, "better judged by 12 than carried by 6". Remember, these are _police officers_ talking. But also, it was Atlanta, GA, where the crime is HIGH.
Also, when the risk of being caught is increased, casual crime will decrease. Serious (professional) criminals don't care what the chance of being caught is, they just charge more. This is what makes organized crime fruitful.
What makes it fruitful is the economic payoff. Something that is in demand (say, illegal drugs in the US) but has no supply, will find bootleggers and smugglers stepping in to provide the supply. There's too much money to be made. The cost to the consumer is higher, because of the risks and precautions the suppliers must take. But the payoffs are still too good to pass up. This is the economics of the black market.
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...Time-Warner reports a productivity drop of 25%
This is so spectacularly dumb that the words to describe how spectacularly dumb it is don't exist.
I mean...they're giving up flexible filtering, the platform-independance of POP3/IMAP, properly-formed headers on messages, and speed......for a.wav file, a stupidified excuse for a crappy mail client, the nastiness of another protocol layer, and all the horrible, horrible things that the AOL client software does to a Windows PC.
What would Time-Warner employees need to do except TRY to swap pictures and other copyright-protected files (and for the average user, that is via AOL mail)? That way they can internally test their copyright protection schemes, and see if the battalion of laywers needs to be notified for rapid deployment to enforce the DMCA.
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Absolutely. And since Fisher-Price produces toy telephones, all of its employees should have to use them for business.
I find the Fisher-Price toy phones are best for me at work. I never get bothered by anyone, and thus I get lots of work done. Of course, I am NOT using AOL mail.
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If you insulate it properly you could probably just use the heat from the servers and powerplant to warm it to room temperature. Of course you'll need a backup heater in case everything gets shut down, who knows how being way below freezing would affect things.
Just throw engine-block heaters on the suckers, for starting up only.
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Guess what sparky, money isn't everything.:) I would rather make my salary of ~$15,000/year and be very happy with what I do. Then make insaine ammounts of money and not be happy. I am pretty sure he likes what he does.
Why do we always assume that rich people are unhappy? Is it a way of expressing our envy, and since we aren't that rich, well, at least _I_ am happy, because he surely can't be! But then, you did mention you had the chance, and turned it down.
Maybe rich people are happy making money, just in the pure pursuit of it. Having it doesn't do it, because these guys just keep making more, it seems. Maybe I'm not rich because making money doesn't make me happy, so I don't pursue it with gusto. And I can't imagine lots of money making me happy. I've seen lots of miserable poor folk, too. I can tell you one thing: I sure do like being comfortable a whole lot more than being poor, which I've been.
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Slashdot Mirror
Governments have coercive power. They own a monopoly on violence in a geographic area. Microsoft does not. Also, the 20th Century shows that you cannot trust governments as they are currently configured (ie, large central powerful states).
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"Shocked, I am, to find _gambling_ going on at this establishment!"
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Yeah, it was 45.5Kbps.
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I started an Oracle download at 10pm. I got up about 7am and it was still going...still connected. 650MB, take that, QWEST, and smoke it!
--
Slavery is where you own the fruits of your own labor. If someone else does, they basically own you. So in the US, the land of the free, uh, er, the _freakin' Government_ owns us!
--
I would like to implement a per-bit toll on the stuff going through my property. Bill Gates is talking to me about helping me with it. He's drooling though, you think it's from using Windows point-and-drool interface?
--
I thought the speed of light (c) was the physical limit. What is this "warp" I keep hearing about?
--
The warp 5 limitation was cause warp drives were tearing the fabric of space time.
Going at high warp speeds doesn't send you back in time. Going faster than warp 10 theoretically would (in the star trek universe).
The real reason for the limitation: all the on-board Windows boxes blue screen at anything above Warp 5.
--
Excellent point, but you should extend it to include just about everything Hollywood makes today. Every era seems to be dealing with all the exact same issues that are important to the folks over in Hollywood, CA. It shows a terrible emptiness in imagination, and they end up hectoring us relentless on the proper way to think--very boring in the end.
The good stuff, rare as it is, doesn't do that.
--
So if you post the DeCSS code via Google, whom do the laywers target? If not Google, what if we _all_ posted it using Google?
--
The GPL exists because of RMS--his stance on software liberty is principled and consistent. Should expect him to sell out so that he doesn't alienate a few drones out there? Should he be the politician and do some bootlicking, and modify the GPL? He already states that people are free to use the license and software they want to. He's not using the coercive power of the government to make people use the GPL.
If it's so important not to alienate anyone, let's just pack it up, go home, and change all our sigs to "Microsoft roolz!" Anyway, you can bet there will be people in that audience that would be alienated by TUX if he were there.
--
The "lifetime" mentioned was not that of humans, but of some summer moths. That was somewhere in the fine print, I am sure of it.
--
Isn't it funny how those of us who _know_ technology know better than to think that technology is the panacea. Those who don't are easily susceptible to the siren song: "This technology will solve the problem".
--
State control and monitoring is always done in the name of "law and order". But it is always done for the benefit of state power.
And this sounds like another plan to get the kids used to being controlled and monitored, without protesting.
--
I just got my notice for my 20-year high school reunion. I remember back as a senior, I put down "World Domination" as my life goal (I am serious, I wrote that, I just hadn't figured out how I'd get there). Of course, Linux came along, and I jumped at the chance to make it happen, or at least ride Linus' coattails to glory. Now this guy comes along and tells me that all my Linux/UNIX skills are worthless for my goal! I am crushed. Is he right? Should I give up the dream? Is there any hope? Or should I just change my goals to "get a faster CPU"? Anybody have any advice? ("Get a life" I've already thought about...)
--
Maybe they could set themselves up as a government program, and plunder the populace. Hey, if they're a failure, it's because they didn't get enough funding and maybe they could get more money and keep the subsidized failure going for a few more years. Think of the lost jobs if they shut it down! It's for the children!
Sorry, getting a little carried away...
--
I typically only buy the slow-sellers--I am particularly interested in unpopular history (i.e, stuff not written by Court Intellectuals who are Lapdog Apologists For the Regime's Received Wisdom [tm] ). Nice to know I'm helping keep Amazon going. I do have an obscure book on order from Borders, but after four years of waiting, I think it's toast--never heard a thing from them about it. I did get it from Amazon 3-1/2 years ago.
But there is nothing quite like the rush of wandering through bookstacks and thumbing through new books.
--
In my opinion, the GPL is intended to build a strong software community at the expense of a strong commercial software business model.
Whether this is a bad thing or not is open to debate.
The GPL doesn't build a powerful, centralized authority which can influence the government (i.e. "force") to privilege them in certain ways.
A large corporation is a centralized, powerful entity (which is why it finds the government so easy to cozy up to) which can and typically does influence the government so that it receives certain privileges that others don't. (That is why all these big companies try to sic the gov't on each other: get privilege for my company, get some hamstringing restrictions on them.)
And the GPL community is a threat to Large MultiNational Corporations Working Hand-In-Glove with Government. We're decentralized, we're hard to control, and we don't bow the knee to the corporate state. Problem is, when we get really organized, we get power and start becoming one of those large corporations who buddy up to government power.
--
They're using Linux. They hacked on the kernel. What else is there? Minesweeper, perhaps? I mean, my grandmother is a kernel hacker--this is the 21st Century! Who needs apps?
--
OK, this is a _bit_ offtopic...
I took a short course given by a couple of Atlanta police officers. The topic: self-defense with a gun (we went out to the range and shot at targets, too). They said the term "protect and serve" is a bunch of hooey, they don't stand around guarding you, they show up to write the crime report. I liked these guys, they even handed out copies of the pertinent state laws on using lethal force for self-defense, and said, "better judged by 12 than carried by 6". Remember, these are _police officers_ talking. But also, it was Atlanta, GA, where the crime is HIGH.
Also, when the risk of being caught is increased, casual crime will decrease. Serious (professional) criminals don't care what the chance of being caught is, they just charge more. This is what makes organized crime fruitful.
What makes it fruitful is the economic payoff. Something that is in demand (say, illegal drugs in the US) but has no supply, will find bootleggers and smugglers stepping in to provide the supply. There's too much money to be made. The cost to the consumer is higher, because of the risks and precautions the suppliers must take. But the payoffs are still too good to pass up. This is the economics of the black market.
--
My daughter was doing that in Spy Fox: Dry Cereal months ago. Oh, wait, that's just a game.
--
What would Time-Warner employees need to do except TRY to swap pictures and other copyright-protected files (and for the average user, that is via AOL mail)? That way they can internally test their copyright protection schemes, and see if the battalion of laywers needs to be notified for rapid deployment to enforce the DMCA.
--
I find the Fisher-Price toy phones are best for me at work. I never get bothered by anyone, and thus I get lots of work done. Of course, I am NOT using AOL mail.
--
Just throw engine-block heaters on the suckers, for starting up only.
--
Why do we always assume that rich people are unhappy? Is it a way of expressing our envy, and since we aren't that rich, well, at least _I_ am happy, because he surely can't be! But then, you did mention you had the chance, and turned it down.
Maybe rich people are happy making money, just in the pure pursuit of it. Having it doesn't do it, because these guys just keep making more, it seems. Maybe I'm not rich because making money doesn't make me happy, so I don't pursue it with gusto. And I can't imagine lots of money making me happy. I've seen lots of miserable poor folk, too. I can tell you one thing: I sure do like being comfortable a whole lot more than being poor, which I've been.
--