I can suggest www.mises.org and the many discussions about "natural monopoly".
Such a thing can only exist, without using force, so long as the service provider keeps their price low enough, or their service high enough, that any possible competition doesn't want to expend the investment required to undercut them.
Too bad the FCC isn't going to address the tightest "bundling" of all, the grants of monopoly that cable providers get from their state/locality.
If they had any interest in "anti-competitive" practices, this would be the FIRST thing to go.
Once done, you could pick the provider that gives you the channels you want, or bundles, or even carries 24 hour Home Shopping and nothing else.
Personally, it's not which regulation I object to, it is the fact of regulation to which I object. I no more want to regulate other peoples business than I want to be regulated myself. I guess that's why I'm not rich.
If I may disagree, it's important to understand what is going on under the hood. Even if you don't do your own engine work, it is important to know how to check the oil and even when to down-shift an automatic transmission.
Installing Debian means watching the steps involved even if all the defaults are selected.
So I am convinced that the "hide everything" installers are actually counterproductive.
Here I was going to suggest Debian, but you're right Knoppix is one of the best introductions to Debian out there.
I realize I'm going to get flamed and modded as flamebait or troll for this...
Debian is a great first distribution for the hobbyist. The installation is wonderful for anyone who likes to tinker. And they'll only have to do it once.
The installers are getting easier and easier as time passes, too.
The hardest part is still Xwindows. With Knoppix, a working XF86Config-4 can be created and copied to the HD. That's what I did with my Vaio laptop. Darned unique hardware!
I guess I just don't have the "name recognition" of TBL.
Top level domains don't buy anything any more. They are a waste, an attempt to make the REGISTRY look like a INDEX. By confusing the two, the issue continues to plague everyone.
Maybe since TBL has said it, people will listen now. At least I was able to dissolve an IETF BOF with a single statement. Felt good.
The American Constitution is an excellent example of what you're talking about.
The "power" to limit power was given to government to limit what government could do. As is to be expected, no such luck.
I, too, shuddered when I read Linus talk about how DRM could be built in without much trouble.
I'm just glad that everything is still GPL'd, and I can go into the DRM module, patch it to uselessness, and re-release it. Unless, of course, that power is taken away from me by someone with a bigger gun.
Bob-
Re:The Public School System Is Working Perfectly
on
The Flickering Mind
·
· Score: 1
Did you read the source material? Do you know who Horace Mann even was? Do you know what country the American forced Public Schools are modeled on and why? Did you do anything except voice your own opinion as if it were fact?
The one-room school house is NOT the Prussian model, and they WORK. Those are two reasons why there are none left.
I, too, had the honor of learning from three of those hard-assed Real Teachers. They saved my life. Just as you say, they were the ones who were feared, and the only ones with classes worth attending.
They had something in common: All three were ex-military who had been in combat. Two marines and one army, two from WW2 and one from Vietnam. Two foot soldiers, one pilot.
Go read Heinlein's "Starship Troopers". I only read that book after getting out of school, but the sociological position of those three Real Teachers made a LOT more sense to me after I read it.
Hey, in some ways Canada is a really great place. Much more intelligent marijuana policies, for instance, rather than the absurdities of the prohibitionist polypramatoi control freaks in the US. What I don't like is being forced to pay for other peoples medical choices, but every country has forced entitlements of one sort or another. The only difference is extent.
Unfortunately, the US is in serious decline. I figure I'll jump ship for China in not too many years, try to catch them in their ascendency.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I've become convinced that it's mostly because of the tag line, rather than the content of the posts themselves.
I agree that I should have said "handgun" rather than just "gun", but I doubt it would have made any difference. Without an endless diatribe about how the US government is even more rabidly anti-gun, and wants to install a medical monopoly that would make Canada's present one look like a model of personal choice, any statement about the negative impact of government control on peoples lives anywhere else is just setting ones self up for being called an ugly American.
Gun control and central planning did directly facilitate the attack in 2001. Security methods were mandated from On High, rather than individual airports and airlines deciding how to best handle the security of their passengers, so the attackers knew what worked in one airport would work in all of them. The passengers and crew were all disarmed, by law, regardless of the wishes of the passengers or the airlines, so a few guys with knives could be certain of not having their victims fight back.
Bob-
The Public School System Is Working Perfectly
on
The Flickering Mind
·
· Score: 2, Informative
It's simply absurd to suggest that your typical educator or politician blindly believes that computers are the solution to America's education woes.
You discount the real reason for public school: Dumbing down the general populous to make obedient factory workers and soldiers.
Don't take my word for it, read the works of those people who founded the forced public schools.
The companies are pretty much the same, but the government services are even crappier than in the US.
Don't Get Sick. Or if you do, come south of the border and pay for a doctor in cash. You'll get better service faster than waiting for the Canadian national health service to get around to you.
Hope you don't like guns, because Canada is rabbidly anti-gun.
Microsoft is certainly not to "blame" for the fact that someone chose to exploit holes in their software. What Microsoft is to blame for is their arrogance in both claiming they are secure *and* absolving themselves of all responsibility for not *being* secure.
No computer system that offers services can ever be totally secure. You know that, I know that, but the Microsoft marketing department will pretend it's not true.
Let this punk get prosecuted for simple trespass and theft of service. Simply paying back all the victims for their time and effort wasted dealing with the worm should keep him in forced labor for the rest of his life.
It doesn't mention any OS, so I must assume this is a MSWin only thing.
That would be very bad. Awful, even. S2 Games, with their release of Savage on both Windows and Linux platforms, has raised the bar. I would like to see these folks rise to meet it.
Gee, England had a wine industry for thousands of years. It's been too cold for wine grapes for several centuries, maybe things are returning to normal.
It seems the earth continues to change temperatures well within its historical range.
Anyone who wants me to punish people for doing far less "harm" than a single volcanic eruption, just demonstrate that this change in temperature is anything other than natural. Go ahead, I dare you.
Until you can, keep your ego-stroking self-centered "if it's not exactly like I remember then it's YOUR FAULT" attitude to yourself.
You cite one of the primary reasons that I liked Win95. After 5 years of using it, I had been able to pare down the system processes to a minimum, no open holes, no pointless apps. It ran quite well.
There is no such thing as "public" airways. They were taken away from the "public" with the creation of the FCC in order to censor content and control who owned what.
Paper ballots create the possibility of auditing the vote count. Electronic machines remove that possibility, which is why politicians are very much in favor of electronic voting machines.
HDTV has been made law. Shafted by special interest groups through their bought and paid for "representatives", as usual. Now we deal with the supposedly "unintended" consequences.
This whole "democracy" thing has to be re-examined. Government force used for things utterly devoid of any "keeping the peace" function is tyranny.
The bureaucratic mind functions(?) on the premise that "what isn't specifically legal is therefore illegal". That is, for everyone except the bureaucracy. That is why cops enforce gun control with guns. That is how "unlicensed driving" became a crime, when the law was written only to apply to commercial use of the "public" roads.
We are in the same position with space. Since it exists, the bureaucrats regulate it. If they do not have a specific regulation, then obviously it's illegal for private people to do it.
The sooner we get off this rock the better. How I loath bureaucrats.
"...visited a young Wolfgang Mozart, who was three days old at the time.
"PDQ sensed a great potential in the boy, and told his father that with the right training and encouragement, he could become one of the greatest billiards player the world had ever seen."
Slashdot Mirror
I can suggest www.mises.org and the many discussions about "natural monopoly".
Such a thing can only exist, without using force, so long as the service provider keeps their price low enough, or their service high enough, that any possible competition doesn't want to expend the investment required to undercut them.
Bob-
Too bad the FCC isn't going to address the tightest "bundling" of all, the grants of monopoly that cable providers get from their state/locality.
If they had any interest in "anti-competitive" practices, this would be the FIRST thing to go.
Once done, you could pick the provider that gives you the channels you want, or bundles, or even carries 24 hour Home Shopping and nothing else.
Personally, it's not which regulation I object to, it is the fact of regulation to which I object. I no more want to regulate other peoples business than I want to be regulated myself. I guess that's why I'm not rich.
Bob-
L.Neil Smiths book would make a great movie. With ready made sequels too.
If I may disagree, it's important to understand what is going on under the hood. Even if you don't do your own engine work, it is important to know how to check the oil and even when to down-shift an automatic transmission.
Installing Debian means watching the steps involved even if all the defaults are selected.
So I am convinced that the "hide everything" installers are actually counterproductive.
Bob-
Here I was going to suggest Debian, but you're right Knoppix is one of the best introductions to Debian out there.
I realize I'm going to get flamed and modded as flamebait or troll for this...
Debian is a great first distribution for the hobbyist. The installation is wonderful for anyone who likes to tinker. And they'll only have to do it once.
The installers are getting easier and easier as time passes, too.
The hardest part is still Xwindows. With Knoppix, a working XF86Config-4 can be created and copied to the HD. That's what I did with my Vaio laptop. Darned unique hardware!
Bob-
I guess I just don't have the "name recognition" of TBL.
Top level domains don't buy anything any more. They are a waste, an attempt to make the REGISTRY look like a INDEX. By confusing the two, the issue continues to plague everyone.
Maybe since TBL has said it, people will listen now. At least I was able to dissolve an IETF BOF with a single statement. Felt good.
Bob-
blast it all, I was hoping to mention e-gold first.
But such is life. e-gold is very much the way to go if at all possible.
Bob-
The American Constitution is an excellent example of what you're talking about.
The "power" to limit power was given to government to limit what government could do. As is to be expected, no such luck.
I, too, shuddered when I read Linus talk about how DRM could be built in without much trouble.
I'm just glad that everything is still GPL'd, and I can go into the DRM module, patch it to uselessness, and re-release it. Unless, of course, that power is taken away from me by someone with a bigger gun.
Bob-
Did you read the source material? Do you know who Horace Mann even was? Do you know what country the American forced Public Schools are modeled on and why? Did you do anything except voice your own opinion as if it were fact?
The one-room school house is NOT the Prussian model, and they WORK. Those are two reasons why there are none left.
I, too, had the honor of learning from three of those hard-assed Real Teachers. They saved my life. Just as you say, they were the ones who were feared, and the only ones with classes worth attending.
They had something in common: All three were ex-military who had been in combat. Two marines and one army, two from WW2 and one from Vietnam. Two foot soldiers, one pilot.
Go read Heinlein's "Starship Troopers". I only read that book after getting out of school, but the sociological position of those three Real Teachers made a LOT more sense to me after I read it.
Bob-
Hey, in some ways Canada is a really great place. Much more intelligent marijuana policies, for instance, rather than the absurdities of the prohibitionist polypramatoi control freaks in the US. What I don't like is being forced to pay for other peoples medical choices, but every country has forced entitlements of one sort or another. The only difference is extent.
Unfortunately, the US is in serious decline. I figure I'll jump ship for China in not too many years, try to catch them in their ascendency.
Bob-
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I've become convinced that it's mostly because of the tag line, rather than the content of the posts themselves.
I agree that I should have said "handgun" rather than just "gun", but I doubt it would have made any difference. Without an endless diatribe about how the US government is even more rabidly anti-gun, and wants to install a medical monopoly that would make Canada's present one look like a model of personal choice, any statement about the negative impact of government control on peoples lives anywhere else is just setting ones self up for being called an ugly American.
Gun control and central planning did directly facilitate the attack in 2001. Security methods were mandated from On High, rather than individual airports and airlines deciding how to best handle the security of their passengers, so the attackers knew what worked in one airport would work in all of them. The passengers and crew were all disarmed, by law, regardless of the wishes of the passengers or the airlines, so a few guys with knives could be certain of not having their victims fight back.
Bob-
It's simply absurd to suggest that your typical educator or politician blindly believes that computers are the solution to America's education woes.
You discount the real reason for public school: Dumbing down the general populous to make obedient factory workers and soldiers.
Don't take my word for it, read the works of those people who founded the forced public schools.
I can whole heartedly recommend the works of New York State Teacher of the Year John Taylor Gatto.
The public school system in America is working perfect for what it was designed to do.
Bob-
The companies are pretty much the same, but the government services are even crappier than in the US.
Don't Get Sick. Or if you do, come south of the border and pay for a doctor in cash. You'll get better service faster than waiting for the Canadian national health service to get around to you.
Hope you don't like guns, because Canada is rabbidly anti-gun.
Bob-
"Locks keep out honest people."
Microsoft is certainly not to "blame" for the fact that someone chose to exploit holes in their software. What Microsoft is to blame for is their arrogance in both claiming they are secure *and* absolving themselves of all responsibility for not *being* secure.
No computer system that offers services can ever be totally secure. You know that, I know that, but the Microsoft marketing department will pretend it's not true.
Let this punk get prosecuted for simple trespass and theft of service. Simply paying back all the victims for their time and effort wasted dealing with the worm should keep him in forced labor for the rest of his life.
Bob-
Why invent new crimes when it's just the same old crime on a new medium?
This punk trespassed, stole services, and vandalized the effected machines. Prosecute him for that.
60 days in jail and $20 fine, for each instance, served consecutively. That should be sufficient.
Bob-
It doesn't mention any OS, so I must assume this is a MSWin only thing.
That would be very bad. Awful, even. S2 Games, with their release of Savage on both Windows and Linux platforms, has raised the bar. I would like to see these folks rise to meet it.
Bob-
Huh? Used to be colder? It would have to be WARMER for England to grow grapes.
Go ahead and look it up. Locally produced wine in England throughout the middle ages.
I'd love to say that to all the doom-and-gloom GlobalWarming fruitcakes. "Go Look It Up." Stop depending on Time magazine to tell you what to think.
Bob-
Gee, England had a wine industry for thousands of years. It's been too cold for wine grapes for several centuries, maybe things are returning to normal.
It seems the earth continues to change temperatures well within its historical range.
Anyone who wants me to punish people for doing far less "harm" than a single volcanic eruption, just demonstrate that this change in temperature is anything other than natural. Go ahead, I dare you.
Until you can, keep your ego-stroking self-centered "if it's not exactly like I remember then it's YOUR FAULT" attitude to yourself.
Bob-
You cite one of the primary reasons that I liked Win95. After 5 years of using it, I had been able to pare down the system processes to a minimum, no open holes, no pointless apps. It ran quite well.
I missed it until I found KDE.
Bob-
There is no such thing as "public" airways. They were taken away from the "public" with the creation of the FCC in order to censor content and control who owned what.
Paper ballots create the possibility of auditing the vote count. Electronic machines remove that possibility, which is why politicians are very much in favor of electronic voting machines.
Bob-
HDTV has been made law. Shafted by special interest groups through their bought and paid for "representatives", as usual. Now we deal with the supposedly "unintended" consequences.
This whole "democracy" thing has to be re-examined. Government force used for things utterly devoid of any "keeping the peace" function is tyranny.
Bob-
It's simple, really. It's about control.
The bureaucratic mind functions(?) on the premise that "what isn't specifically legal is therefore illegal". That is, for everyone except the bureaucracy. That is why cops enforce gun control with guns. That is how "unlicensed driving" became a crime, when the law was written only to apply to commercial use of the "public" roads.
We are in the same position with space. Since it exists, the bureaucrats regulate it. If they do not have a specific regulation, then obviously it's illegal for private people to do it.
The sooner we get off this rock the better. How I loath bureaucrats.
Bob-
"...visited a young Wolfgang Mozart, who was three days old at the time.
"PDQ sensed a great potential in the boy, and told his father that with the right training and encouragement, he could become one of the greatest billiards player the world had ever seen."
My first girlfriend studied Music Theory, ah the memories your posting brings back. ...few of which have to do with music...
Bob-
Hey, SW6, that was a joke! You even quoted my smily. :^)
Bob-