I think just about everyone of the nerd subset, "hardcore computer gamer," was just hoping for some chance to trash this episode on Slashdot. I know I was looking forward to it, I mean "bleah!"
Sometimes, you have to love being able to MiSTy something when it let's you down!
It doesn't seem so, his computer episodes on The X-Files (and, of course, Harsh Realm) just annoyed me. On the other hand, the computer themes on Millenium were normally handled well (computers were a huge part of the symbolism on Millenium).
I'll be honest, I decided to just drop this episode out of the whole X-Files continuum, because it just annoyed me so much. Oh, and it does not bode well for The Lone Gunmen spin-off. (Note to Chris Carter, hire a computer consultant, preferably one who is actually into computers.)
I also dislike the fact that Scully (our hard-headed rationalist) was the one who rattled off the whole "video games lead to real world violence" thesis and Mulder (our new-ager who'll believe any credible thesis, except mainstream religion, that you care to name) was the one to refute it. Of course, Scully is usually wrong about everything (on the X-Files, the irrational thing is usually the truth), so maybe that's a plus.
Hmm, Fox needs to sit Dana down in front of a Playstation with Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, come back in a few hours and say, "Scully, we had a report of a giant buglike thing in Queens, NY" and Scully could reply, "Uh-huh," totally mesmerized. For those who find my game choice to be sexist, I chose it because it's the opposite of an FPS... and not just because its the one all the women I know like to play. I'm not sure why women like Tetris style games, anyway, is it because it is considered "ok" for them to like them or something else? It just seems to be a genuine phenomenon, so I'm curious as to the cause. Besides, the whole portrayal of FPSs on the show was sexist, against men and women. (I mean, considering that some women do enjoy playing Quake and Half-Life what does it say about them? If I were a female Quaker, I'd be pretty mad after watching that!)
Incidentally, I spent most of that Sunday playing Heroes III my first native Linux game (hooray!). It kind of annoyed me that the only way to start off with a Necropolis and an undead creature as your main guy is to get lucky in one of the random start scenarios. I mean we have the scenario where you fight Necrolord, but where's the scenario where you are Necrolord fighting off pesky humans? (I mean, I got a Necroplois as a starting city in a random game, but it isn't quite as cool as a balanced scenario where you are assigned to play an undead lord that isn't designed at random.. it's still fun though.) Oh well, off topic now....
You know, in the past, I used to have problems like this. I mean this year I'm presented with a group of candidates in the two major parties, none of whom I could possibly vote for. I mean, the two major parties offer a choice of Al "V-Chip" Gore and his wife Tipper "PMRC" Gore (not to mention that her comments on Dungeons and Dragons, well, I guess I just did;-) Then there is John "CDA2" McCain or George "Bob Jones University" Bush.
Yes, they seem a lovely pack of jackals and demagogues. Lot's of people are voting for one or the other. In fact, my sister was trying to convince me to become a Republican just the other day <Shudder> "Come on, George W. Bush needs your vote," she said to me, seriously!! <Shudder>. Bleah! And I thought I was convincing her to vote Libertarian... -_-
But there is a solution, and it doesn't involve sitting home on election day! That solution is Harry Browne, Libertarian, a man who is looking out for everyone's rights.
Remember, voting for a candidate who doesn't win may be depressing, but helping to elect a loser is far, far worse!
Vote Browne and send a message to the establishment!
(Incidentally, I've read articles in Forbes magazine that seemed OK, but not only is he out of the race, he was courting the Christian Coalition vote when he was in the race... I think that means, ultimately, filters and censorship under his administration, too.)
I'd rather have a heads up display that I could turn on and off, sort of like my U. N. N. Naval Hacker in System Shock II.
Of course, it wouldn't have the caché of visible technology embedded in the body, unless it were messy with lots of external wires sticking out. Heh, that'd be cool... provided they weren't so heavy they'd make my head list to one side or something...
But, you know, anything to make me into a more useful future tool for my beloved SHODAN...
Perhaps we ought to be switching to fiber-optic everything. I keep wondering what happened to fiber optics, I mean I always thought there were going to be new application inside the computers, maybe eventually only a few key parts would be electrical, the rest being photonic.
I think the big thing about magnetic anything is that it degrades over time as it demagnetizes, as far as I can see optical based media doesn't suffer from this. (Except for those deliberately degrading DVDs they came out with recently... but then they are deliberately designed to disintigrate.)
Magnetic mediums still seem to be good, short term solutions for storage. I just think too much stuff on magnetic storage is designed for the long term.
The other day I wrote a simple perl script to run "The Lurking Horror" (Infocom game) in Xzip, and also open up the page that had the old fashioned copy protection (you know, look up the page in the manual) stuff up in another window.
I don't know what these guys problem is, because it took me no time at all to make a clickable icon to run the script in KDE, less time than it would've taken me in Windows.
The only trouble is, it's such a boring icon. I wish I were an artist so I could make a nice scary, Cthuhloid icon for it. Oh, well, I guess I'll have to search for one on the Web.
Of course, Windows users who create their own programs have even worse icon choices, in my opinion.
I work in an Office where the boss likes us to use Frontpage, and I notice it doesn't seem to be compatible with things I'd ordinarily use to make Web pages.
I'm talking about things like perl and ftp programs.
I also notice that our ISP has dire warnings on their administration site, which basically says, "Either use our administration tools, or Frontpage's but don't try to use both."
Basically, if you've created a Web site in Frontpage (and I still try to use Notetab when I can slip it by) it just becomes easier to use MS version of ftp (the one built into Frontpage) and MS Perl-substitute (called "Frontpage server extensions").
My guess is they'd try to pull something like this in Linux. Like install Office and maybe Emacs all of the sudden doesn't work so well, or Wordperfect has a tendency to crash more often. Pretty soon, it just becomes easier for the Linux developers to use MS Office than to fight with what it is doing to the system.
Of course, I have been know to be a wild-eyed, paranoid wierdo... but I think people can check what I've said about Frontpage independently. (Really, try creating a "Frontpage Web" and try to make it work like an ordinary Web site, you'll see...)
You do have a right to the source code, under the GPL. This is law. However much like the Constitutional American "Right to Bear Arms". I have the right to deny you access for exercising this right. While you can bear a concealed handgun, you are not allowed to bring it on a public bus, or many places of business. The signs usually say something like 'No firearms beyond this point'. Which is basically making people to give up their Constitutional rights to bear arms. The rules here will be similar.-- Slade
I just want to point out that this is why Libertarians are so hard line on the Second Amendment, even when people start talking about "reasonable" restrictions on guns. Because all those "reasonable" restrictions undermine the idea of legally or Constitutionally guaranteed rights. See? This guy knows the Second Amendment is weak and poorly enforced by the courts, and he's hoping that that kind of poor enforcement can happen to the GPL.
It isn't as farfetched as it may sound either. Someday a huge corporation with a lot of money and power is going to come along and work very hard to diminish the legal protections granted by the GPL. These people will use legal precedents like the one printed above to undermine the position of the GPL in court.
So, if a person who believes in the Law and also in gun control is reading this, I hope he or she will consider working to change the Constitution, itself, rather than continuing to create laws which weaken it. Sorry to bring it up, it's not directly related. (The same thing applies to Free Speech, though I think the First Amendment still has more popular support than the Second. Every time someone successfully supresses the First Amendment, though, it moves this country more to one of men and not laws.)
Actually, I was trying to say that the fix was not in. Especially in local politics, the voters can still decide on issues. (My quote was intended to be the stereotypical apolitical person who doesn't want to deal with issues and said that "it's all decided in backrooms already, anyway.")
Mind you, there have been political cases where that kind of thing happens, but some people extrapolate from those cases to assume that everything is fore ordained. It is also easier on their consciences when they don't feel like going to the poll or write a letter to say, "Well, it wouldn't have any effect anyway."
If the fix had been in in Holland, the libary would have lost, and been forced to install AFA approved filters. It is precisely because the outcome was not pre-ordained that this is not how the vote turned out.
I feel like going to all the people who post here and other places stuff resembling, "Voting, hah! What a waste of time! The fix is in, and nothing we can do will change it," and showing them this case. I'm never sure why people say that, whether it is to depress turnout because they are on the other side, to spur people to violent or other illegal methods of protest, or just because they are depressed cynics who feel fatalistic about these things.
Make no mistake, this was a loss for the AFA. They don't have an infinite supply of money and the money they spent on trying to get this through all went down the drain. That doesn't mean they'll give up though, not as long as their coffers are full, but it does mean that their threat to keep pushing this should not obscure the fact that this is a real victory for freedom of speech.
Good for Holland, the town proved that people who use dishonest and underhanded tactics to push their agenda don't always win and can be defeated by ordinary citizens standing up for their rights.
Sort of like if you like 2d fighters for the Playstation. Sony US affiliated companies mostly only release 3d games. So even if War Gods is junk compared to Last Blade it doesn't matter, if you live in the US, and play by the rules, you can't buy Last Blade. (This is region codes again... no beautiful, smoothly animated, hand drawn characters for the US... instead we get Kabuki Jo)
Fortunately, I only play games by the rules... not life.
Company's use region codes to stereotype people by region, "Oh Americans aren't interested in that kind of thing, this wouldn't appeal to people in Thailand, etc..." That's what makes me sick, it is a kind of discrimination.
See I ask because I had to have a guy I know make me a backup copy of my legally purchased version of Dino Crisis to play in my Playstation (the backup copy had been modified to remove the anti-mod chip code.) Remember, you are allowed to have one backup copy of any software you buy, according to the law. (Dino Crisis is software, even though it is for a Playstation.)
So, it seems to me that it would be foolish to buy an anti-pirate mod chip as an individual, though it might make sense for import stores.
You see I like the sound of the words "Britain's largest supermarket chain" taking the very same people who are responsible for trying to destroy our right to fair use to court for price fixing.
I'm hoping if this keeps up, we'll be able to start using the term "embattled MPAA (or DVD CCA)" or hear phrases like "a dark cloud hangs over the MPAA."
Also this is great, because in my opinion the reason for destroying fair use is the same as the reasons for region coding, to generate profits at the expense of consumer's rights. Having a reasonably big corporation come out and say the same thing is always a plus (provided we are careful... remember when AOL was for open cable access? Welcome them to our side, but don't leave the fight to them.).
Oh, actually, the point of the whole DeCSS was to destroy a legal argument that the MPAA and DVD CCA were trying to make, which was, to paraphrase, "we have a valuable trade secret which was misappropriated from our company [note: reverse engineering is no misappropriation, neither is reading something out of a publicly published document. However, the DVD CCA and MPAA are using the shotgun approach to law, figuring if they fire out enough legal arguments at once some of it is bound to work.] so we have to quickly shut down all these Web sites to protect our trade secret."
Funny thing about trade secrets, the DVD CCA could sue Xing for publishing their trade secret in a public document, but this does not apply to the people who read that document. It's sort of like if an employee of Coca Cola published the recipe for Coca Cola in a personal ad in the New York times. The employee would be in big trouble, and Coca Cola would probably try to take the New York Times to court, too (though they'd lose). But they couldn't sue people who were making cola with the recipe that they read out of the times, they could just prevent them from using Coca Cola trademarks. Once a trade secret is out, it is out. If someone can duplicate a trade secret, you are screwed. If your employee spills a trade secret to a large number of people, you'd better hope he's rich, because he's the guy you've got to sue. A trade secret is neither a patent nor a copyright. Once it is no longer secret, it no longer has any legal protection. (Oh, by the way I am not a lawyer, I've only read articles by lawyers on this subject.)
So, why did the DVD CCA not copyright or patent its code? Well, the main reason is that anyone can go in and look at patents, and then make their own disks using the CSS. CSS was supposedly created because the law wasn't sufficient to stop piracy in the first place (and also for other reasons delineated here). This actually happened to Nintendo when Tengen used a flimsy lawsuit to look at Nintendo's cartridge patents and then used infor from those patents to make NES cartridges. (Tengen rightly lost that one in the courts.)
So, the point of making sure that DeCSS was readily available was so that is can no longer be considered a trade secret. If only a few people knew it, the companies might be able to convince them to remain silent. If everyone knows it, though, then it isn't a secret anymore and the companies can't expect any legal rulings based on the idea that it is. (Though the trade secret argument is one of the thinnest in this case... which is notable for thin arguments from the plaintiffs side.)
Re:It just looks bad to extroverts
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Actually, I used to go camping before they had laptops, I'd just bring my AD&D manuals with me while "roughing it." Incidentally, I left my original copy of the Monster Manual in a campground somewhere in North America. I got a replacement copy that was the same version, but if anyone finds the original please contact me... (Of course, that was 19 years ago so it might be pretty ragged looking by now...) Oh, on another trip in a different campground I lost a matchbox sized repilica of the Astin Martin James Bond used in the movie GoldFinger (actually, it was my sister who lost it... -_-) so, again if anyone finds it... it had a popup shield, ejector seat and machine guns...;_;
Oh, and all my friends call me for tech support too... ^_^
I understand what you are saying and everything, but you do _vote_, right?
I mean, I come from a very political family, my father helped swing elections in my town, so the concept of not-voting in an election never really occurred to me.
I mean, really, it isn't that difficult, I always manage to show up at the polls and cast my vote, but I'm pretty sure you can even do it by mail, if necessary (I haven't checked into the details.)
I mean, the smaller the election, the more power you've got. Maybe not on UCITA, but at least on stuff like the Holland Library, you could make a difference.
I predict that a third party will rise up and either displace one of the other two or stabilize with them within the next 30 years. People are starting to get fed up enough, and the apathetic people everyone always complains are the majority have no control over politics, it's only the people who actually care who make a difference.
....in a world where most politicans are as corrupt as the decadent senators of the decaying roman empire?
Hmm, I was thinking of this analogy myself. See, I love Roman history, it fascinates me and I've been reading Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. Most of the books are about the death of the Roman Republic, which had a lot of death spasms before it gave up its ghost and Imperial Rome replaced it.
Well, the main reason why the Republic died is because Roman armies were loyal to their generals and not to Rome. Because of this, the Roman generals were able to act like little kings, making demands on the Senate and People (the Roman House of Representatives).
Today, it seems like multinational corporations are developing the same kind of power, through massive corruption of political institutions and control of markets. I only wish we could convince our politicians of this, because if we could they might not let them get their way all the time (no politician wants to rubber stamp a bunch of legislation for a multinational if it means he has no real power, I would hope.)
I wonder if Emperor Case will be as bad as Nero or Caligula...
Re:It just looks bad to extroverts
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Recently, I was reading an article by L. Sprague DeCamp about author H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft, if you know anything about him, loved to write letters and help people with writing, but he was also a loner who felt like an outsider most of the time. DeCamp described him as having a schizoid personality, which is not the same thing as schizophrenia but rather a common personality type. The schizoid, basically, spends an inordinate amount of time living inside his or her own mind, and thus is not very connected with "the real world."
Obviously, there was no Internet when Lovecraft was writing (well, unless the Fungi from Yuggoth had a secret network set up), and yet he still had this type of personality. In fact, I suspect a lot of truly dedicated writers do, writing is hard work that requires dedication and a distraction free environment.
In my case, I consider myself a socially awkward extrovert. I like people (well, some people) I like talking to people and finding out what they think about things. I even like arguing about things with people, but I'm very bad at forming social relationships. I suffer from agoraphobia, large groups of people make me uncomfortable and impatient.
The Internet has a lot of levels. For example, I'd bet a lot of todays surfers have never been on a MUCK. Is MUCKing social or unsocial? In my case it started out social and ended up being both social and unsocial so I gave it up. Still, I'm still friends with one person I met on a MUCK, so it wasn't a total loss. The same thing is probably true of the more advanced... er, MUDs? Can I call EverQuest a MUD? I mean it is a Multi-User Dungeon, right?
Now when I was a kid, who rarely connected to Compuserve (they charged too much) or local BBSs on my Atari 800, computer use was a 100% unsocial activity.
1. It made you a freak to the non-computer users at school.
2. You spent your time playing Enchanter or Ultima III rather than getting fresh-air, or else (in my case) delving into the mysteries of Player-Missile graphics (anyone remember them? They were a variation on Sprite graphics Atari used...)
3. You, yourself, might get annoyed that other people weren't into computers, and dismiss your peers as "boring."
Of course, nowadays everyone uses computers, so I think the mere fact of being a computer enthusiast won't make you a social outsider anymore. In fact, I'm betting there is a bias in this study, because the people who wrote it are probably a little on the older side, that computer enthusiasts are introverted loners who have no friends and sit alone in dark rooms with their computers. Actually, I think, too, that everything about computers is more social now... look at the fact that even great games like System Shock II feel the need to add multi-player patches to improve the game.
Nintendo? Wipe Atari out? Please read Game Over by David Scheff, history seems to say that Time/Warner wiped Atari out and Nintendo just picked up their business after that.
Okay, your sad story has encouraged me to show you how I see the people behind the faceless corporations...
Jack Valenti drew the curtains closed in the DVD CCA and MPAA war room. He smiled that Congress charming smile he was known to use to get his way on Capitol Hill. "So, is everyone clear on what we're doing and why we're doing it?"
A naive young executive spoke up, "I understand that we are trying to criminalize the use of unlicensed reverse engineered DVD players. It cuts into our licensing profits and it's bad for business. However, I'm confused by some of our tactics. I mean, we keep telling the press that deCSS allows the creation of copies of DVDs, but people can already do that. Another thing, people are allowed to do that, the Berne convention, fair use and all that. Isn't this just kicking up dust clouds that obscure our main issue?"
"Well, I understand what you are saying, but you have to understand that this is bigger than just CSS," Jack said, causing one of the cowled figures from the DVD CCA to hiss.
"Now, now, my friends," he said, glancing nervously at the DVD CCA council, "We all admire the fine work you've done, just hear me out ok?"
"We don't want unlicensed DVD players to exist for a few reasons. The first, of course, is the licensing fee, but in reality, that's chump change. Regional coding, you see, is where the real money is. Say we release a movie in the US. Well, that's all well and good, but there is a huge market in India that can't afford to pay as much as the US market can. We can make a profit from that country, but we have to knock some bucks off the price. Now, in a free market," here Jack pauses as the sinister assembly in the room chuckles, "an enterprising entrepreneur could buy up cheap DVDs in India, and sell them in the US, bleah! With regional coding, we can maximize our profits on a per region basis! Oh, and of course, we can release mature versions of movies in other parts of the world where they think of us Americans as a bunch of Puritans, but still keep the FFV (Fanatics for Family Values) folks happy."
"But, Mr. Valenti," said the young executive, "This is all interesting, but it's got nothing to do with copying."
"Sorry, went off on a tangent, there, and your right," he paused, "Do you know what else maximizes profits? I'll tell you what, selling people the same thing, over and over and over again. It's huge! Now, you may not know this, it's top secret, but look at this."
Mr. Valenti pulls out a tiny, coin sized disk, "This is the future, it can hold every Spielberg, Lucas and Tarentino movie ever made just on this one disk. Not that we'll do that, of course," he chuckled, "But we are going to be switching to these in about five years, just like we switched from tape to DVD. By that time, we're going to need to have changed the law so you can't copy materials for personal use. I mean do you know how difficult it is to produce new content? That'll sell? It takes a huge effort, but when you have content that's proven popular, like, say, The Wizard of Oz you don't want people to pay for it once and never buy it again!"
"Tapes were a fine media, know why?" he asked, "'Cause they decay over time, with viewing, and everthing else. Pretty soon, that copy of It's a Wonderful Life is all worn out, and Joe Sixpack has to buy another copy if he wants to watch it... well, when it isn't showing fifty times on TV. With DVDs, decay isn't as certain. Oh, a good scratch will take it out, and these baby's," he shows one of the new decaying coating DVDs, "rot away just as well as video tape, thanks for that Fred," a sinister black cloaked figure nods slightly at the praise.
"Where was I? Oh, but what if Johnny Lunchpail could make a perfect copy of that great Mr. Potter movie... love the way he got to keep the money... huh? What then? I'll tell you what!"
Jack shook with rage, even the sinister DVD CCA people backed off slightly, "We could never sell it to him again, that's what! He'd own it! Well, what we are out to do here is change the concept of ownership itself. The unwashed masses will never own our movies! They'll just have possession for a temporary time! When DVD players go out of style, we stop letting people make them, pretty soon those saps have to rebuy their whole video collection! Technology always advances, and when it stops, we'll find a way! We'll change a nut or a cog inside, and the old disks won't work, heh, heh heh.... they'll never be safe!"
"Oh... right, and we have to stop casual piracy, because that's just awful," here, Jack gave a broad wink to the young executive. "Now, let's close the meeting with a rousing song, provided for us by the good folks at Disney," Michael Eisner grinned at Jack.
The droning voices of the assembled began to sing:
I think that if shareholders and people who legally have bought property can be circumvented by large, soulless, corporations, we've proved something here. This isn't about capitalism anymore, this is about tyranny. A small group of very powerful people who control the way you live whether you are legally entitled to do something or not. (Or worse yet, change the laws to suit their whims, knowing that the "common people" can't stop them.)
Heh, I think I'll start calling it "the New Feudalism."
I have a belief about the leaders of the Fundamentalist Christian Movement. It is this: the ultimate goal of the fundie leadership is to get their followers to accept what they say without question.
I accept the above as proven fact, and this makes the fundies a dangerous cult in which men are the true gods of the cult. One day, those men may say "kill the heathens" to the followers of the cult, and if the followers are as sheeplike as they seem, they'll do it.
Because of this, I'm not sure exactly what creating propaganda which works on them will do. Sure, the followers might catch on to "Filterware isn't about protecting the children. It's a scam that can never work. The companies that write it and sell it are lying to you" However, the leadership will come back with "We say that isn't so, if you doubt us, you are doubting God's word. Dare you risk eternal damnation?"
You see at this point I don't see the fundies, I mean the followers, as much more than glazed-eyes zombie cultists. I don't think they think for themselves, and I don't think they want to.
In my opinion, we can't convince the fundies of anything, we have to hope that there are more normal people out there than cultists, or everything is lost anyway and it's time to move to a bunker. So, in my opinion, pointing out that the Offspring's site is blocked might be helpful to getting normal people (you know the one's who send their kids out "trick or treating" on Halloween because they don't think it is some kind of Satanic ritual. Note the large selection of Halloween costumes in Walmart near Halloween, I think it's safe to say that the majority of people are still letting their kids get dressed up.) see that this is the behaviour of the extreme, radical, "Carrie's Mom," Right. Actually, it would be really great if we could find sites about the Beetles or the Rolling Stones that are blocked... since we are trying to convince older people (a.k.a. voters, older people are more reliable voters.) that these people are nuts. People tend to get emotionally attached to the bands they listened to in there youth, but are not necessarily up to speed on more modern music... and may even ascribe sinsiter influences to it..
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Sometimes, you have to love being able to MiSTy something when it let's you down!
We are Mike (or Joel) and the robots this time!
It doesn't seem so, his computer episodes on The X-Files (and, of course, Harsh Realm) just annoyed me. On the other hand, the computer themes on Millenium were normally handled well (computers were a huge part of the symbolism on Millenium).
I'll be honest, I decided to just drop this episode out of the whole X-Files continuum, because it just annoyed me so much. Oh, and it does not bode well for The Lone Gunmen spin-off. (Note to Chris Carter, hire a computer consultant, preferably one who is actually into computers.)
I also dislike the fact that Scully (our hard-headed rationalist) was the one who rattled off the whole "video games lead to real world violence" thesis and Mulder (our new-ager who'll believe any credible thesis, except mainstream religion, that you care to name) was the one to refute it. Of course, Scully is usually wrong about everything (on the X-Files, the irrational thing is usually the truth), so maybe that's a plus.
Hmm, Fox needs to sit Dana down in front of a Playstation with Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, come back in a few hours and say, "Scully, we had a report of a giant buglike thing in Queens, NY" and Scully could reply, "Uh-huh," totally mesmerized. For those who find my game choice to be sexist, I chose it because it's the opposite of an FPS... and not just because its the one all the women I know like to play. I'm not sure why women like Tetris style games, anyway, is it because it is considered "ok" for them to like them or something else? It just seems to be a genuine phenomenon, so I'm curious as to the cause. Besides, the whole portrayal of FPSs on the show was sexist, against men and women. (I mean, considering that some women do enjoy playing Quake and Half-Life what does it say about them? If I were a female Quaker, I'd be pretty mad after watching that!)
Incidentally, I spent most of that Sunday playing Heroes III my first native Linux game (hooray!). It kind of annoyed me that the only way to start off with a Necropolis and an undead creature as your main guy is to get lucky in one of the random start scenarios. I mean we have the scenario where you fight Necrolord, but where's the scenario where you are Necrolord fighting off pesky humans? (I mean, I got a Necroplois as a starting city in a random game, but it isn't quite as cool as a balanced scenario where you are assigned to play an undead lord that isn't designed at random.. it's still fun though.) Oh well, off topic now....
Yes, they seem a lovely pack of jackals and demagogues. Lot's of people are voting for one or the other. In fact, my sister was trying to convince me to become a Republican just the other day <Shudder> "Come on, George W. Bush needs your vote," she said to me, seriously!! <Shudder>. Bleah! And I thought I was convincing her to vote Libertarian... -_-
But there is a solution, and it doesn't involve sitting home on election day! That solution is Harry Browne, Libertarian, a man who is looking out for everyone's rights.
Remember, voting for a candidate who doesn't win may be depressing, but helping to elect a loser is far, far worse!
Vote Browne and send a message to the establishment!
(Incidentally, I've read articles in Forbes magazine that seemed OK, but not only is he out of the race, he was courting the Christian Coalition vote when he was in the race... I think that means, ultimately, filters and censorship under his administration, too.)
Of course, it wouldn't have the caché of visible technology embedded in the body, unless it were messy with lots of external wires sticking out. Heh, that'd be cool... provided they weren't so heavy they'd make my head list to one side or something...
But, you know, anything to make me into a more useful future tool for my beloved SHODAN...
Iä, Iä, SHODAN phtagn!!
I think the big thing about magnetic anything is that it degrades over time as it demagnetizes, as far as I can see optical based media doesn't suffer from this. (Except for those deliberately degrading DVDs they came out with recently... but then they are deliberately designed to disintigrate.)
Magnetic mediums still seem to be good, short term solutions for storage. I just think too much stuff on magnetic storage is designed for the long term.
I don't know what these guys problem is, because it took me no time at all to make a clickable icon to run the script in KDE, less time than it would've taken me in Windows.
The only trouble is, it's such a boring icon. I wish I were an artist so I could make a nice scary, Cthuhloid icon for it. Oh, well, I guess I'll have to search for one on the Web.
Of course, Windows users who create their own programs have even worse icon choices, in my opinion.
I'm talking about things like perl and ftp programs.
I also notice that our ISP has dire warnings on their administration site, which basically says, "Either use our administration tools, or Frontpage's but don't try to use both."
Basically, if you've created a Web site in Frontpage (and I still try to use Notetab when I can slip it by) it just becomes easier to use MS version of ftp (the one built into Frontpage) and MS Perl-substitute (called "Frontpage server extensions").
My guess is they'd try to pull something like this in Linux. Like install Office and maybe Emacs all of the sudden doesn't work so well, or Wordperfect has a tendency to crash more often. Pretty soon, it just becomes easier for the Linux developers to use MS Office than to fight with what it is doing to the system.
Of course, I have been know to be a wild-eyed, paranoid wierdo... but I think people can check what I've said about Frontpage independently. (Really, try creating a "Frontpage Web" and try to make it work like an ordinary Web site, you'll see...)
It isn't as farfetched as it may sound either. Someday a huge corporation with a lot of money and power is going to come along and work very hard to diminish the legal protections granted by the GPL. These people will use legal precedents like the one printed above to undermine the position of the GPL in court.
So, if a person who believes in the Law and also in gun control is reading this, I hope he or she will consider working to change the Constitution, itself, rather than continuing to create laws which weaken it. Sorry to bring it up, it's not directly related. (The same thing applies to Free Speech, though I think the First Amendment still has more popular support than the Second. Every time someone successfully supresses the First Amendment, though, it moves this country more to one of men and not laws.)
She just wanted to do it for kicks and never expected to actually have to get married (most people thought she was a surprising choice.)
In my opinion, the whole thing was a scam, anyway. Since this was always a possibility She didn't even spend one night alone with him.
Hmm... the plot thickens...
Mind you, there have been political cases where that kind of thing happens, but some people extrapolate from those cases to assume that everything is fore ordained. It is also easier on their consciences when they don't feel like going to the poll or write a letter to say, "Well, it wouldn't have any effect anyway."
If the fix had been in in Holland, the libary would have lost, and been forced to install AFA approved filters. It is precisely because the outcome was not pre-ordained that this is not how the vote turned out.
Make no mistake, this was a loss for the AFA. They don't have an infinite supply of money and the money they spent on trying to get this through all went down the drain. That doesn't mean they'll give up though, not as long as their coffers are full, but it does mean that their threat to keep pushing this should not obscure the fact that this is a real victory for freedom of speech.
Good for Holland, the town proved that people who use dishonest and underhanded tactics to push their agenda don't always win and can be defeated by ordinary citizens standing up for their rights.
Fortunately, I only play games by the rules... not life.
Company's use region codes to stereotype people by region, "Oh Americans aren't interested in that kind of thing, this wouldn't appeal to people in Thailand, etc..." That's what makes me sick, it is a kind of discrimination.
See I ask because I had to have a guy I know make me a backup copy of my legally purchased version of Dino Crisis to play in my Playstation (the backup copy had been modified to remove the anti-mod chip code.) Remember, you are allowed to have one backup copy of any software you buy, according to the law. (Dino Crisis is software, even though it is for a Playstation.)
So, it seems to me that it would be foolish to buy an anti-pirate mod chip as an individual, though it might make sense for import stores.
You see I like the sound of the words "Britain's largest supermarket chain" taking the very same people who are responsible for trying to destroy our right to fair use to court for price fixing.
I'm hoping if this keeps up, we'll be able to start using the term "embattled MPAA (or DVD CCA)" or hear phrases like "a dark cloud hangs over the MPAA."
Also this is great, because in my opinion the reason for destroying fair use is the same as the reasons for region coding, to generate profits at the expense of consumer's rights. Having a reasonably big corporation come out and say the same thing is always a plus (provided we are careful... remember when AOL was for open cable access? Welcome them to our side, but don't leave the fight to them.).
There is one positive to posting the fake one that the real one doesn't have.
Which is, if the DVD CCA sues you over the fake one they will definitely lose and you can countersue.
If they sue you over the real one... well, I'm hoping they'll lose but not counting on it.
Funny thing about trade secrets, the DVD CCA could sue Xing for publishing their trade secret in a public document, but this does not apply to the people who read that document. It's sort of like if an employee of Coca Cola published the recipe for Coca Cola in a personal ad in the New York times. The employee would be in big trouble, and Coca Cola would probably try to take the New York Times to court, too (though they'd lose). But they couldn't sue people who were making cola with the recipe that they read out of the times, they could just prevent them from using Coca Cola trademarks. Once a trade secret is out, it is out. If someone can duplicate a trade secret, you are screwed. If your employee spills a trade secret to a large number of people, you'd better hope he's rich, because he's the guy you've got to sue. A trade secret is neither a patent nor a copyright. Once it is no longer secret, it no longer has any legal protection. (Oh, by the way I am not a lawyer, I've only read articles by lawyers on this subject.)
So, why did the DVD CCA not copyright or patent its code? Well, the main reason is that anyone can go in and look at patents, and then make their own disks using the CSS. CSS was supposedly created because the law wasn't sufficient to stop piracy in the first place (and also for other reasons delineated here). This actually happened to Nintendo when Tengen used a flimsy lawsuit to look at Nintendo's cartridge patents and then used infor from those patents to make NES cartridges. (Tengen rightly lost that one in the courts.)
So, the point of making sure that DeCSS was readily available was so that is can no longer be considered a trade secret. If only a few people knew it, the companies might be able to convince them to remain silent. If everyone knows it, though, then it isn't a secret anymore and the companies can't expect any legal rulings based on the idea that it is. (Though the trade secret argument is one of the thinnest in this case... which is notable for thin arguments from the plaintiffs side.)
Oh, and all my friends call me for tech support too... ^_^
Just kidding, but I really liked the episode with the freaks they had on recently.
I wonder if the real jockeys got mad at that episode...I understand what you are saying and everything, but you do _vote_, right?
I mean, I come from a very political family, my father helped swing elections in my town, so the concept of not-voting in an election never really occurred to me.
I mean, really, it isn't that difficult, I always manage to show up at the polls and cast my vote, but I'm pretty sure you can even do it by mail, if necessary (I haven't checked into the details.)
I mean, the smaller the election, the more power you've got. Maybe not on UCITA, but at least on stuff like the Holland Library, you could make a difference.
I predict that a third party will rise up and either displace one of the other two or stabilize with them within the next 30 years. People are starting to get fed up enough, and the apathetic people everyone always complains are the majority have no control over politics, it's only the people who actually care who make a difference.
Well, the main reason why the Republic died is because Roman armies were loyal to their generals and not to Rome. Because of this, the Roman generals were able to act like little kings, making demands on the Senate and People (the Roman House of Representatives).
Today, it seems like multinational corporations are developing the same kind of power, through massive corruption of political institutions and control of markets. I only wish we could convince our politicians of this, because if we could they might not let them get their way all the time (no politician wants to rubber stamp a bunch of legislation for a multinational if it means he has no real power, I would hope.)
I wonder if Emperor Case will be as bad as Nero or Caligula...
Obviously, there was no Internet when Lovecraft was writing (well, unless the Fungi from Yuggoth had a secret network set up), and yet he still had this type of personality. In fact, I suspect a lot of truly dedicated writers do, writing is hard work that requires dedication and a distraction free environment.
In my case, I consider myself a socially awkward extrovert. I like people (well, some people) I like talking to people and finding out what they think about things. I even like arguing about things with people, but I'm very bad at forming social relationships. I suffer from agoraphobia, large groups of people make me uncomfortable and impatient.
The Internet has a lot of levels. For example, I'd bet a lot of todays surfers have never been on a MUCK. Is MUCKing social or unsocial? In my case it started out social and ended up being both social and unsocial so I gave it up. Still, I'm still friends with one person I met on a MUCK, so it wasn't a total loss. The same thing is probably true of the more advanced... er, MUDs? Can I call EverQuest a MUD? I mean it is a Multi-User Dungeon, right?
Now when I was a kid, who rarely connected to Compuserve (they charged too much) or local BBSs on my Atari 800, computer use was a 100% unsocial activity.
1. It made you a freak to the non-computer users at school.
2. You spent your time playing Enchanter or Ultima III rather than getting fresh-air, or else (in my case) delving into the mysteries of Player-Missile graphics (anyone remember them? They were a variation on Sprite graphics Atari used...)
3. You, yourself, might get annoyed that other people weren't into computers, and dismiss your peers as "boring."
Of course, nowadays everyone uses computers, so I think the mere fact of being a computer enthusiast won't make you a social outsider anymore. In fact, I'm betting there is a bias in this study, because the people who wrote it are probably a little on the older side, that computer enthusiasts are introverted loners who have no friends and sit alone in dark rooms with their computers. Actually, I think, too, that everything about computers is more social now... look at the fact that even great games like System Shock II feel the need to add multi-player patches to improve the game.
Okay, your sad story has encouraged me to show you how I see the people behind the faceless corporations...
Jack Valenti drew the curtains closed in the DVD CCA and MPAA war room. He smiled that Congress charming smile he was known to use to get his way on Capitol Hill. "So, is everyone clear on what we're doing and why we're doing it?"
A naive young executive spoke up, "I understand that we are trying to criminalize the use of unlicensed reverse engineered DVD players. It cuts into our licensing profits and it's bad for business. However, I'm confused by some of our tactics. I mean, we keep telling the press that deCSS allows the creation of copies of DVDs, but people can already do that. Another thing, people are allowed to do that, the Berne convention, fair use and all that. Isn't this just kicking up dust clouds that obscure our main issue?"
"Well, I understand what you are saying, but you have to understand that this is bigger than just CSS," Jack said, causing one of the cowled figures from the DVD CCA to hiss.
"Now, now, my friends," he said, glancing nervously at the DVD CCA council, "We all admire the fine work you've done, just hear me out ok?"
"We don't want unlicensed DVD players to exist for a few reasons. The first, of course, is the licensing fee, but in reality, that's chump change. Regional coding, you see, is where the real money is. Say we release a movie in the US. Well, that's all well and good, but there is a huge market in India that can't afford to pay as much as the US market can. We can make a profit from that country, but we have to knock some bucks off the price. Now, in a free market," here Jack pauses as the sinister assembly in the room chuckles, "an enterprising entrepreneur could buy up cheap DVDs in India, and sell them in the US, bleah! With regional coding, we can maximize our profits on a per region basis! Oh, and of course, we can release mature versions of movies in other parts of the world where they think of us Americans as a bunch of Puritans, but still keep the FFV (Fanatics for Family Values) folks happy."
"But, Mr. Valenti," said the young executive, "This is all interesting, but it's got nothing to do with copying."
"Sorry, went off on a tangent, there, and your right," he paused, "Do you know what else maximizes profits? I'll tell you what, selling people the same thing, over and over and over again. It's huge! Now, you may not know this, it's top secret, but look at this."
Mr. Valenti pulls out a tiny, coin sized disk, "This is the future, it can hold every Spielberg, Lucas and Tarentino movie ever made just on this one disk. Not that we'll do that, of course," he chuckled, "But we are going to be switching to these in about five years, just like we switched from tape to DVD. By that time, we're going to need to have changed the law so you can't copy materials for personal use. I mean do you know how difficult it is to produce new content? That'll sell? It takes a huge effort, but when you have content that's proven popular, like, say, The Wizard of Oz you don't want people to pay for it once and never buy it again!"
"Tapes were a fine media, know why?" he asked, "'Cause they decay over time, with viewing, and everthing else. Pretty soon, that copy of It's a Wonderful Life is all worn out, and Joe Sixpack has to buy another copy if he wants to watch it... well, when it isn't showing fifty times on TV. With DVDs, decay isn't as certain. Oh, a good scratch will take it out, and these baby's," he shows one of the new decaying coating DVDs, "rot away just as well as video tape, thanks for that Fred," a sinister black cloaked figure nods slightly at the praise.
"Where was I? Oh, but what if Johnny Lunchpail could make a perfect copy of that great Mr. Potter movie... love the way he got to keep the money... huh? What then? I'll tell you what!"
Jack shook with rage, even the sinister DVD CCA people backed off slightly, "We could never sell it to him again, that's what! He'd own it! Well, what we are out to do here is change the concept of ownership itself. The unwashed masses will never own our movies! They'll just have possession for a temporary time! When DVD players go out of style, we stop letting people make them, pretty soon those saps have to rebuy their whole video collection! Technology always advances, and when it stops, we'll find a way! We'll change a nut or a cog inside, and the old disks won't work, heh, heh heh.... they'll never be safe!"
"Oh... right, and we have to stop casual piracy, because that's just awful," here, Jack gave a broad wink to the young executive. "Now, let's close the meeting with a rousing song, provided for us by the good folks at Disney," Michael Eisner grinned at Jack.
The droning voices of the assembled began to sing:
o/~ Yo, ho, Yo ho, a pirates life for me
We'll ravage and pillage and won't give a hoot
Drink up me hearties, yo ho! o/~
I really feel sorry for these people, don't you?
Heh, I think I'll start calling it "the New Feudalism."
I accept the above as proven fact, and this makes the fundies a dangerous cult in which men are the true gods of the cult. One day, those men may say "kill the heathens" to the followers of the cult, and if the followers are as sheeplike as they seem, they'll do it.
Because of this, I'm not sure exactly what creating propaganda which works on them will do. Sure, the followers might catch on to "Filterware isn't about protecting the children. It's a scam that can never work. The companies that write it and sell it are lying to you" However, the leadership will come back with "We say that isn't so, if you doubt us, you are doubting God's word. Dare you risk eternal damnation?"
You see at this point I don't see the fundies, I mean the followers, as much more than glazed-eyes zombie cultists. I don't think they think for themselves, and I don't think they want to.
In my opinion, we can't convince the fundies of anything, we have to hope that there are more normal people out there than cultists, or everything is lost anyway and it's time to move to a bunker. So, in my opinion, pointing out that the Offspring's site is blocked might be helpful to getting normal people (you know the one's who send their kids out "trick or treating" on Halloween because they don't think it is some kind of Satanic ritual. Note the large selection of Halloween costumes in Walmart near Halloween, I think it's safe to say that the majority of people are still letting their kids get dressed up.) see that this is the behaviour of the extreme, radical, "Carrie's Mom," Right. Actually, it would be really great if we could find sites about the Beetles or the Rolling Stones that are blocked... since we are trying to convince older people (a.k.a. voters, older people are more reliable voters.) that these people are nuts. People tend to get emotionally attached to the bands they listened to in there youth, but are not necessarily up to speed on more modern music... and may even ascribe sinsiter influences to it..