What new law would you have? Force and fraud are already prosecutable, did either of these bottom-feeders perpetrate such crimes? Or did they simply target their sales efforts?
The law already allows for placing yourself into the position of "ward", incapable of spending your money unwisely. Or, at least, all at once.
Please don't misunderstand me, I think such people deserve to be drawn and quartered. So many others also believe such "Confidence Artists" are evil and cause harm that it is already against the law.
How about this one: You are free to not patronize their establishment. Or buy their stocks.
Knowing that they are compiling this data, as a customer I would like the option of reviewing the records they have on me, and to delete or correct data that I disagree with.
Does your objection require a law? Or does it merely require making them aware of a new service that you would like?
The power to take your business elsewhere is the ultimate power over a business. They want you to come back. Tell them what you want. If they object, then leave.
very good points, all, and you might be surprised that i agree with you.
i also do not use sendmail, for one big reason: it's complex.
long before i knew about sendmail's vulnerability, i chose a simpler mail service. i also don't run apachie, same reason.
if you need the services of big, complex and vulnerable programs that get lots of development effort and versions, then you are also likely involved enough to get/hack/compile/install the latest versions of those programs.
if Debian's release cycle is too slow for you, your skill level is such that you can certainly fix things to be the way you want them.
personally, i am very happy for dselect and its little comments, like: "small, secure and fast web server with few options."
as far as i know, no one is using these technologies. even IBM, last i looked, still cooled their biggest computers with water.
the Tesla turbine i can understand, since so few people even know it exists. but the thermal-pezo-junction is very common, even used in travel refridgerators that plug into your cigarette lighter. or is that 12-volt accessories adapter now?
it is no business of government what features i choose or do not choose to include in my software.
so long as i do not steal from others, use force or fraud, there simply is no crime to prosecute.
now *did* Microsloth use "force or fraud"? did they "steal" code? these are factual questions and if true deserve prosecution.
or is Microsloth merely guilty of successful negotiation? exclusive source contracts with suppliers? and other such things that everyone else is just jealous of?
prosecution because of jealousy is a lousy way to run a court.
and what if Microsloth never did any of these things? then Linux, BeOS, xBSD and the other variations on a theme might never have the backing of so many people who want to do it "right".
oh, i noticed that the file manager / browser in KDE is the same program. how is their bundling the "browser" into the "os" any different?
was your suggestion to the Debian maintainers made with the same considered, polite and informative attitude used here?
hostility is a perception of the person *reading* a message, not always the intention of the sender. a touch of politeness helps greatly, and doesn't cost much.
i know the article is about command line apps, what about dselect?
i've used dselect since my first Debian installation in 1997, which also happened to be my first Linux.
i like getting a description of the package, being able to key-word search through the descriptions since i don't always already know what something is called.
surely there is enough room in this idea-space for everyone to use the one they like?
Bob-
"Top Level Domains" are unstable and unsustainable
on
IETF vs. ICANN
·
· Score: 1
Back in the 1996 San Jose IETF meeting, a man from Dunn and Bradstreet and I were effective enough in just a few sentenses to disolve the "Lets Add More TLD's" B-O-F. Yes, that's right, the people there, including the BOF meeting organizer, agreed that more TLD's were a waste of time.
In the following 5 years and endless further discussions, the logic behind the rejection of additional TLD's by the group, including Bill Maning, remain valid:
1: Unless there is one central authority, like ICANN, with a monopoly on TLD's, the available TLD's complexity will become impossible. A company like CocaCola will be endlessly chasing down new TLD's in order to protect their copyright, for instance.
2: The domain name space is a REGISTRY, not an INDEX. The man from Dunn and Bradstreet, someone intimately involved with very large registries, said this was the root cause of the illusion of "limited name space". There is no limit to the name space, only to what people are willing to type. Names are irrelevant if you can't find them, and irrelevant also if there is no need to type them in. Geocities has demonstrated for years that numbered and arbitrarily long subdirectory trees, make perfectly good URL's.
3: Government already represents the "monopoly on the initiation of force" that is required to effectively run the TLD namespace. We already have top level domains which are administered effectively in this manner, the Country Code TLD's:.US,.JP,.DE,.RU, etc.
As long as people contine to use the REGISTRIES as if they were INDEXES, there will be the illusion of a limitation to name space, and a push by people who do not think about it for more "top level domains" so they don't have to type an extra two or three characters.
To an index server, such as Google, Yahoo, etc., names are irrelevant. It is only those people who want to type "favorite-company-name" into their browser window, which in the case of Netscape automatically adds the "WWW." and ".COM" for them, who want more TLD's.
Oh! But Wait! If We Add More TLD's, Then I'll Have To Remember WHICH TLD My Favorite Company Has Registered Under! That Doesn't Help At All!
Exactly. More TLD's doesn't solve the illusionary "problem" that it's supporters say it will solve.
We already have the answers to this "problem": People are building better indexes; and the country codese are all the TLD's we need.
I personally believe that because of clustering and distributed databases, TLD's are actually irrelevant, but people are so attached to the idea that I'm not going to even try that one.
I have $10 that says the reason that ICANN exists at all is because American congressmen and senators don't want to give up their gnarly ".GOV" domains to have to use ".GOV.US" and loose the prestige of looking like they run the world.
well, there's the great question. who's morality? which morality?
what "morality" are we to enforce against the freedom to act, and the choice of the individual?
i'm not saying that individuals do not choice to do bad things. there are lots of people in the world doing really nasty things to their fellow humans, who consider themselves to be the pinacle of "moral" at the same time. the Talaban in Afganistan is a good example. so is Hitler.
every warning in the article as posted, and likely in the book (i have no read it) is a good one. free individuals must be allowed to choose.
and if people choose the "fast food culture"? are they wrong for doing so?
the greatest danger is see in all of this is the combination of government/corporate power. the government monopoly on initiation of force allowes their creation, the "corporation", to act irresponsibily. and isn't the real objection of the individuals to this fast-food encorporation of culture that the people responsible are never punished for the harm that they do?
as a "moral" guide, i submit solely that it is wrong to initiate force, or to deligate that initiation to a third party, against anyone.
how does that fit with your model of "morality"?
remember, the government that can give you everything you want can as easily take it all away. and will.
Bob-
Re:NASA was researching this tech...
on
Flywheel UPS
·
· Score: 1
hmmmm.... two flywheels, counter-rotating, and no worries about where to get hard vacuum. space would seem to be a good place for this tech.
Re:Eco friendly? a LEAD flywheel is worse.
on
Flywheel UPS
·
· Score: 1
too bad, lohen, i really liked your.sig...
your error is in thinking that what you decry as the "future" is the result of technology. the fact is that humanity has spent the vast majority of its existance in abject poverty, pestilence and squallor.
but a funny thing happened: private property and capitalism. i recomend reading Human Action by Ludwig Von Mises for some real information on economics.
want to prevent poverty? defend property rights.
want to prevent polution? defend property rights.
on the SUBJECT, remember that stored energy increases with mass on a linear basis, but exponentially with RPM's. so you're better off with a light flywheel turning really fast, than with a slow heavy one.
the biggest problem i had with installing Debian was documentation. as soon as i found each correct option in my manuals for ethernet card, monitor, graphics card, sound, they worked.
i used SunOS at work for 3 years before i tried Debian, so i already had some idea of what a *nix could do, and some experienced systems admins to ask for advice.
i've done RedHat, and been very hard pressed to get it to do what i wanted. i've tried Dragon Linux for fun, too. they work, but they do not have good package management, and when something new comes out i'm hard-pressed to upgrade anything.
apt-get and dselect are Debians true masterpieces.
yes, Debian is conservative. i laude the package maintainers for their work in testing before release. if Debian cost money, i'd pay it gladly. i'm glad it doesn't.
Slashdot Mirror
The law already allows for placing yourself into the position of "ward", incapable of spending your money unwisely. Or, at least, all at once.
Please don't misunderstand me, I think such people deserve to be drawn and quartered. So many others also believe such "Confidence Artists" are evil and cause harm that it is already against the law.
How about this one: You are free to not patronize their establishment. Or buy their stocks.
Knowing that they are compiling this data, as a customer I would like the option of reviewing the records they have on me, and to delete or correct data that I disagree with.
Does your objection require a law? Or does it merely require making them aware of a new service that you would like?
The power to take your business elsewhere is the ultimate power over a business. They want you to come back. Tell them what you want. If they object, then leave.
Bob-
i also do not use sendmail, for one big reason: it's complex.
long before i knew about sendmail's vulnerability, i chose a simpler mail service. i also don't run apachie, same reason.
if you need the services of big, complex and vulnerable programs that get lots of development effort and versions, then you are also likely involved enough to get/hack/compile/install the latest versions of those programs.
if Debian's release cycle is too slow for you, your skill level is such that you can certainly fix things to be the way you want them.
personally, i am very happy for dselect and its little comments, like: "small, secure and fast web server with few options."
the "maintained by..." line doesn't hurt either.
Bob-
as far as i know, no one is using these technologies. even IBM, last i looked, still cooled their biggest computers with water.
the Tesla turbine i can understand, since so few people even know it exists. but the thermal-pezo-junction is very common, even used in travel refridgerators that plug into your cigarette lighter. or is that 12-volt accessories adapter now?
Bob-
Enter Password: no. or how about, "fuck you i want my lawyer!" so you can pass the lie detector test....
Tesla-turbine fan: smooth disks rather than bladed rotors, more efficient and virtually silent. http://www.execpc.com/~teba/
Pezo-thermal heat sink: no more fan on the CPU, just put a thin layer of thermal pezo-film between the CPU and the heat sink. active cooling.
ok, the disk-drive noise is something that only shielding will take care of, but getting rid of the fan noise will do wonders.
Bob-
it is no business of government what features i choose or do not choose to include in my software.
so long as i do not steal from others, use force or fraud, there simply is no crime to prosecute.
now *did* Microsloth use "force or fraud"? did they "steal" code? these are factual questions and if true deserve prosecution.
or is Microsloth merely guilty of successful negotiation? exclusive source contracts with suppliers? and other such things that everyone else is just jealous of?
prosecution because of jealousy is a lousy way to run a court.
and what if Microsloth never did any of these things? then Linux, BeOS, xBSD and the other variations on a theme might never have the backing of so many people who want to do it "right".
oh, i noticed that the file manager / browser in KDE is the same program. how is their bundling the "browser" into the "os" any different?
Bob-
just say NO to evangelists.
hostility is a perception of the person *reading* a message, not always the intention of the sender. a touch of politeness helps greatly, and doesn't cost much.
Bob-
i've used dselect since my first Debian installation in 1997, which also happened to be my first Linux.
i like getting a description of the package, being able to key-word search through the descriptions since i don't always already know what something is called.
surely there is enough room in this idea-space for everyone to use the one they like?
Bob-
In the following 5 years and endless further discussions, the logic behind the rejection of additional TLD's by the group, including Bill Maning, remain valid:
1: Unless there is one central authority, like ICANN, with a monopoly on TLD's, the available TLD's complexity will become impossible. A company like CocaCola will be endlessly chasing down new TLD's in order to protect their copyright, for instance.
2: The domain name space is a REGISTRY, not an INDEX. The man from Dunn and Bradstreet, someone intimately involved with very large registries, said this was the root cause of the illusion of "limited name space". There is no limit to the name space, only to what people are willing to type. Names are irrelevant if you can't find them, and irrelevant also if there is no need to type them in. Geocities has demonstrated for years that numbered and arbitrarily long subdirectory trees, make perfectly good URL's.
3: Government already represents the "monopoly on the initiation of force" that is required to effectively run the TLD namespace. We already have top level domains which are administered effectively in this manner, the Country Code TLD's: .US, .JP, .DE, .RU, etc.
As long as people contine to use the REGISTRIES as if they were INDEXES, there will be the illusion of a limitation to name space, and a push by people who do not think about it for more "top level domains" so they don't have to type an extra two or three characters.
To an index server, such as Google, Yahoo, etc., names are irrelevant. It is only those people who want to type "favorite-company-name" into their browser window, which in the case of Netscape automatically adds the "WWW." and ".COM" for them, who want more TLD's.
Oh! But Wait! If We Add More TLD's, Then I'll Have To Remember WHICH TLD My Favorite Company Has Registered Under! That Doesn't Help At All!
Exactly. More TLD's doesn't solve the illusionary "problem" that it's supporters say it will solve.
We already have the answers to this "problem": People are building better indexes; and the country codese are all the TLD's we need.
I personally believe that because of clustering and distributed databases, TLD's are actually irrelevant, but people are so attached to the idea that I'm not going to even try that one.
I have $10 that says the reason that ICANN exists at all is because American congressmen and senators don't want to give up their gnarly ".GOV" domains to have to use ".GOV.US" and loose the prestige of looking like they run the world.
Bob-
organizations are like people. the vast majority of them echo the words of Pastor Nemoller:
"When they came for the Right-Of-Way, I didn't speak up, because it was my neighbors back yard."
Bob-
what "morality" are we to enforce against the freedom to act, and the choice of the individual?
i'm not saying that individuals do not choice to do bad things. there are lots of people in the world doing really nasty things to their fellow humans, who consider themselves to be the pinacle of "moral" at the same time. the Talaban in Afganistan is a good example. so is Hitler.
every warning in the article as posted, and likely in the book (i have no read it) is a good one. free individuals must be allowed to choose.
and if people choose the "fast food culture"? are they wrong for doing so?
the greatest danger is see in all of this is the combination of government/corporate power. the government monopoly on initiation of force allowes their creation, the "corporation", to act irresponsibily. and isn't the real objection of the individuals to this fast-food encorporation of culture that the people responsible are never punished for the harm that they do?
as a "moral" guide, i submit solely that it is wrong to initiate force, or to deligate that initiation to a third party, against anyone.
how does that fit with your model of "morality"?
remember, the government that can give you everything you want can as easily take it all away. and will.
Bob-
hmmmm.... two flywheels, counter-rotating, and no worries about where to get hard vacuum. space would seem to be a good place for this tech.
your error is in thinking that what you decry as the "future" is the result of technology. the fact is that humanity has spent the vast majority of its existance in abject poverty, pestilence and squallor.
but a funny thing happened: private property and capitalism. i recomend reading Human Action by Ludwig Von Mises for some real information on economics.
want to prevent poverty? defend property rights.
want to prevent polution? defend property rights.
on the SUBJECT, remember that stored energy increases with mass on a linear basis, but exponentially with RPM's. so you're better off with a light flywheel turning really fast, than with a slow heavy one.
Bob-
i used SunOS at work for 3 years before i tried Debian, so i already had some idea of what a *nix could do, and some experienced systems admins to ask for advice.
i've done RedHat, and been very hard pressed to get it to do what i wanted. i've tried Dragon Linux for fun, too. they work, but they do not have good package management, and when something new comes out i'm hard-pressed to upgrade anything.
apt-get and dselect are Debians true masterpieces.
yes, Debian is conservative. i laude the package maintainers for their work in testing before release. if Debian cost money, i'd pay it gladly. i'm glad it doesn't.
Bob-