That is an amazingly homophobic comment. Its offensive on so many other levels too.
It's not homophobic at all. Gays and lesbians can and do have children, either adoptive or with the help of someone of the opposite sex.
Personally I disagree with it; go ahead and let the world go to hell. The fools and those whose talents lie mainly in manipulating them are going to continue to dominate the world for the forseeable future. Why not leave it to them, without the geek-experts they depend on but never respect, never share power with, and only grudgingly share any reward. But that's just part of my bitter and cynical view.
These are not the actions of a rational intelligent person. His intelligence is clearly limited to computers and specifically file systems.
And body-hiding. Mustn't forget body hiding. Right under the noses of the cops, too. He probably had a good chance of getting away with it if he just hadn't taken the stand.
He strangled her; there was no blood, so the whole thing with the car seat and the blood on the column in his house was all nothing. He was convicted of the right crime for the wrong reasons.
When did prison go from rehabilitation to punishment?
When was prison ever about rehabilitation? That's just the marketing term; the reality is somewhere between punishment and mere warehousing.
Why give them televisions, gym equipment, access to GED material, job training, or even outside time? Why not just file individuals in 6x10 cells?
Look up the "Pennsylvania system", where they did just that. It was too expensive. It also didn't rehabilitate; rather, as you might expect, it caused insanity. As for the televisions and gym equipment, they are what are euphemistically referred to as "management tools" -- to give the prisoners something to do besides cause trouble in the prison, and to provide something for the wardens to take away if the prisoners do cause trouble.
Punishment makes victims feel better, but society is not bettered. If someone shoplifts, and you punish him, he'll shoplift again. If, instead, you better the person, provide some education and help them find a job and contribute to society, they'll have less incentive to shoplift. The only thing is to provide a way to those social services without necessarily committing the crime.
Making the victim feel better DOES better society, IMO. As for the rest, you assume they are shoplifting for sustenance when they have no other choice. Many criminals commit crimes not because they have no other choice, but because crime is the easier and more lucrative choice. Punishing them means it isn't an easier choice anymore... though the system then turns around and fucks everything up by making ex-cons unemployable, so after being in prison, crime may be their only choice.
Anyway, I don't see how Reiser is going to survive 15 years in prison. That's the other problem with the prison system; where a year-long sentence can be a mere inconvenience to a hardened criminal, an innocent person facing hard time may as well be facing a death sentence, which makes him more likely to plea bargain. Not that this is an issue in Reiser's case, since he's guilty.
Umm, why is it easier for them to steal my data than its for me to synch my phone to my computer?
Because compliance with the government's requirements are enforced by large men with guns and the power to throw people in jail forever (ask Qwest's former CEO), and compliance with your requirements... isn't.
Criteria 4, 1, and 3 are mutually incompatible. The things it takes to increase nerds' effective voting power by several orders of magnitude are either illegal (various technological vote-rigging schemes) or are incompatible with nerdiness because they depend on charisma and extremely well-developed social skills.
...then what good is the support contract anyway? Either stop paying for it or make enough of a stink that they fix it. Of course, RedHat being an enormous company won't pay attention to anyone making a stink unless they are an enormous customer, which is a problem in both open-source and proprietary worlds. At least there's a workaround in the open-source world, one better than object patching the binary...
If I can't do that? What if I don't want to lend money for routine things? I can have an impeccable economy without a credit card, the need of a credit card or even wanting one.
Then they don't want to lend you hundreds of thousands of dollars for a house. They don't know you from Adam; why should they trust you with their money? It's actually pretty amazing that just because you borrowed and paid back tens or hundreds of dollars every month, short term, no interest, they'll consider you qualified to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars over 30 years.
You can still get a mortgage with no credit history. But it is more difficult. The lender can produce something called a nontraditional mortgage credit report (google NTMCR) which takes into account utility bills, rent, insurance, etc. That's great if you're already in that situation. But if you're not ready to buy a house yet, it makes a lot more sense to just get a credit card or two, charge a few items on each one every month, and pay them off in full every month. There is zero downside to doing this and the very large upside of building credit. There's no need to buy into any "charge it" culture; you just buy the same things you'd buy anyway, only with a credit card instead of cash or a debit card.
I've had an instance where some stupid hospital screwed up my address, omitting a number. I never received a single bill from them and get a debt collection call 2 years later.
Did it ever appear on your credit report? If so, did you take any steps to remove it?
I'm sorry, but "guilty until proven innocent" is not an adequate system.
Since there's no guilt or innocence involved, this doesn't make any sense.
Credit bureaus should be shut down by federal order
Repeating "Carthago delenda est" never was much of an argument, though I grant that it did work.
and replaced with a system which gives truly equal arbitration, perhaps under the oversight of the judicial branch.
The current system is under the oversight of the judicial branch; you can sue credit reporting companies. That's pretty cumbersome, I grant you.
I forgot where I heard it, but it was a reputable news source.
credit reports exist to put you at the mercy of the debt collection industry.
No, credit reports exist to help lenders decide how much of a risk you are. By the time a debt ends up in the hands of the debt collection industry, your credit report is already fucked.
The system is perverse, requiring you to go into debt in order to qualify for a mortgage, but providing no recourse when they make mistakes.. even though those mistakes can be as horrific for the victims as false accusations of pedophilia
That's certainly not true; there is recourse for erroneous information on your credit report. You can argue that it isn't good enough, or it is too cumbersome, but it isn't "no recourse".
As for going into debt to qualify for a mortagage.. eh. All you have to do is put your routine expenses on a credit card and pay it off in full each month. You get free use of money and you build credit history. If you can't do that (other than in a number of exceptional situations), you probably shouldn't qualify for a mortgage.
Thus, in New York we learn the ultimately failing of progressive taxation
(emphasis mine) I do not think that word means what you think it means. In the context of taxes, it's not a meaningless epithet; the sales tax is not progressive, it is flat.
YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PAYING TAXES ON ON-LINE PURCHASES. THEY'RE CALLED USE TAXES.
THERE ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ANY STATE TAXES ON INTERSTATE COMMERCE. IT IS CALLED THE CONSTITUTION.
Yes, I know the claim is that use taxes aren't on interstate commerce. They're supposed to be on the "use" of an item within a state by one of its residents. But given the the deduction (or, sometimes, exemption) for goods on which other state sales taxes have been paid, this is nothing but a fig leaf for most goods.
You're right about being able to install the OS, but 17 USC 117 won't save Psystar. Forget, for the moment, the EULA.
17 USC 117
(b) Lease, Sale, or Other Transfer of Additional Copy or Adaptation.-- Any exact copies prepared in accordance with the provisions of this section may be leased, sold, or otherwise transferred, along with the copy from which such copies were prepared, only as part of the lease, sale, or other transfer of all rights in the program. Adaptations so prepared may be transferred only with the authorization of the copyright owner.
Note that last bit. Psystar is selling systems with OS X pre-installed. Because the pre-installed copy is NOT an exact copy, it is an adaptation, and that section is quite clear that transferring adaptations authorized by 17 USC 117(a) requires consent of the copyright holder.
So it's copyright violation, plain and simple, no need for any licensing theories.
Systems can only be as secure as is needed to perform the tasks they were designed for.
Which is fine, if you know what all those tasks are ahead of time. There are comparatively few environments like that.
Sorry but no, you still don't need/. at work
Maybe not. But blocking/. doesn't really make anything more secure either. Blocking everything except sites you think are "needed" might... except when you're wrong about exactly what's needed. And the day your lockdown keeps someone from getting their work done (which will be sooner rather than later), they are going to finally get a chance to vent all that pent-up frustration over your blocking policy.
Gardening is hot, sweaty, sometimes backbreaking work. If you've got any allergies, you'll be sneezing and/or blistered all the time. If you slack off a bit, your work for a season or more is wasted. And you've still got security threats, in the form of rodents, ruminants, insects, and the slower but more tenacious weeds.
IMO, the security mindset as described in that article won't hurt you. What will hurt you is trying to counter the threats that mindset helps you find. By locking everything down and distrusting everyone, you make your co-workers your enemy. You also stop them from getting work done, making management (except for whoever security's patron on the board is) your enemy too. Who wants to do a job which makes everyone hate you, and for good reason? Leave it to the less competent. Or find a place where that level of security is both appropriate and understood by all, like a bank or the IRS or developing country's nuclear weapons pro... err, skip that last
If you think we're promoting piracy, you're free to write software that runs without hardware. Drop us a little note to let us know how that works out, why don't you?
The GPL requires you to include the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable. It does not require you to provide the knowledge needed to use those scripts, if it's all in someone's head. So having "build gurus" doesn't necessarily put you out of compliance, though it might make it hard to demonstrate you are in compliance.
The message I get from the comic is "Get caught pirating, save someone's home". Also that copyright violations are handled as criminal complaints in city courts (???!!!)
The US has tons of limits on free speech, including but not limited to restrictions with respect to
* perjury
But no prior restraint here.
* profanity
Most such restrictions get shot down in court; if it's about profanity in particular, they fall afoul not only of freedom of speech but of religion as well.
* threats * slander and libel
Again, no prior restraint here. And what constitutes a threat is reasonably narrowly defined, though prosecutors are always trying to stretch it
* classified information
You have, perhaps, heard of the Pentagon Papers case? Where the Washington Post and the New York Times could not be enjoined from publishing classified information?
* treason
It's awfully hard to commit treason with public speech. Laws against sedition, on the other hand, have a long history of violating freedom of speech.
Yikes. It sounds like you almost went out of your way to think of negatives for every point there.
No, I've got them stored up from previous discussions with the "if we only..." types who vastly overestimate the potential and vastly underestimate the difficulty of these renewable sources.
He's not trying to sell you on specifics like getting a wind turbine of your own; he's trying to tell you that there are alternatives to your current fuels which will be beneficial for you to use, even if you ignore the environmental aspects.
On the contrary, the post was phrased in specifics, like putting solar panels on my roof (which, with a small roof at ~40N latitude, isn't going to be at all worthwhile). And about putting wind turbines locally, despite that there aren't wind resources rated better than "fair" in the whole state -- and the closest of those are located in the mountains, which makes things that much harder. Even New Jersey with its seacoast gets no better than "Good" (4 in a scale of 1-7) -- and that only on the barrier islands.
People invented this thing called the "battery" about 100 years ago, look into it. Along the same lines, even on still days where you live, there's probably a south-facing hill nearby that's always windy about, oh, 80 feet above the ground.
Don't think so. Some pretty high flags were still today.
Cloudy days still let current solar cells work at about 25% efficiency, and the thousands of square feet of roof your home or apartment building has can generate a surprising amount of energy, provided you're not wasting anything.
Thousands of square feet? My house isn't that big. As for waste... sorry, I follow the laws of thermodynamics, so waste is inevitable.
That's what people said right before the airplane was invented/blockquote. And inventing the airplane wasn't that easy!
The overall climate has been stable for millions of years. Stable within some rather large limits, but stable. For it to have been unstable, you'd have to have an ice age that never ended but instead resulted in the earth either cooling without bound or entering a new, colder, equilibrium. Or runaway greenhouse. Or some other such major permaent change.
Slashdot Mirror
Not Lifetime. The Reiser murder is perfect material for _Dateline_, the white-people murder show.
It's not homophobic at all. Gays and lesbians can and do have children, either adoptive or with the help of someone of the opposite sex.
Personally I disagree with it; go ahead and let the world go to hell. The fools and those whose talents lie mainly in manipulating them are going to continue to dominate the world for the forseeable future. Why not leave it to them, without the geek-experts they depend on but never respect, never share power with, and only grudgingly share any reward. But that's just part of my bitter and cynical view.
And body-hiding. Mustn't forget body hiding. Right under the noses of the cops, too. He probably had a good chance of getting away with it if he just hadn't taken the stand.
He strangled her; there was no blood, so the whole thing with the car seat and the blood on the column in his house was all nothing. He was convicted of the right crime for the wrong reasons.
When was prison ever about rehabilitation? That's just the marketing term; the reality is somewhere between punishment and mere warehousing.
Look up the "Pennsylvania system", where they did just that. It was too expensive. It also didn't rehabilitate; rather, as you might expect, it caused insanity. As for the televisions and gym equipment, they are what are euphemistically referred to as "management tools" -- to give the prisoners something to do besides cause trouble in the prison, and to provide something for the wardens to take away if the prisoners do cause trouble.
Making the victim feel better DOES better society, IMO. As for the rest, you assume they are shoplifting for sustenance when they have no other choice. Many criminals commit crimes not because they have no other choice, but because crime is the easier and more lucrative choice. Punishing them means it isn't an easier choice anymore... though the system then turns around and fucks everything up by making ex-cons unemployable, so after being in prison, crime may be their only choice.
Anyway, I don't see how Reiser is going to survive 15 years in prison. That's the other problem with the prison system; where a year-long sentence can be a mere inconvenience to a hardened criminal, an innocent person facing hard time may as well be facing a death sentence, which makes him more likely to plea bargain. Not that this is an issue in Reiser's case, since he's guilty.
Because compliance with the government's requirements are enforced by large men with guns and the power to throw people in jail forever (ask Qwest's former CEO), and compliance with your requirements... isn't.
Criteria 4, 1, and 3 are mutually incompatible. The things it takes to increase nerds' effective voting power by several orders of magnitude are either illegal (various technological vote-rigging schemes) or are incompatible with nerdiness because they depend on charisma and extremely well-developed social skills.
...then what good is the support contract anyway? Either stop paying for it or make enough of a stink that they fix it. Of course, RedHat being an enormous company won't pay attention to anyone making a stink unless they are an enormous customer, which is a problem in both open-source and proprietary worlds. At least there's a workaround in the open-source world, one better than object patching the binary...
Then they don't want to lend you hundreds of thousands of dollars for a house. They don't know you from Adam; why should they trust you with their money? It's actually pretty amazing that just because you borrowed and paid back tens or hundreds of dollars every month, short term, no interest, they'll consider you qualified to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars over 30 years.
You can still get a mortgage with no credit history. But it is more difficult. The lender can produce something called a nontraditional mortgage credit report (google NTMCR) which takes into account utility bills, rent, insurance, etc. That's great if you're already in that situation. But if you're not ready to buy a house yet, it makes a lot more sense to just get a credit card or two, charge a few items on each one every month, and pay them off in full every month. There is zero downside to doing this and the very large upside of building credit. There's no need to buy into any "charge it" culture; you just buy the same things you'd buy anyway, only with a credit card instead of cash or a debit card.
Did it ever appear on your credit report? If so, did you take any steps to remove it?
Since there's no guilt or innocence involved, this doesn't make any sense.
Repeating "Carthago delenda est" never was much of an argument, though I grant that it did work.
The current system is under the oversight of the judicial branch; you can sue credit reporting companies. That's pretty cumbersome, I grant you.
Uh-huh.
No, credit reports exist to help lenders decide how much of a risk you are. By the time a debt ends up in the hands of the debt collection industry, your credit report is already fucked.
That's certainly not true; there is recourse for erroneous information on your credit report. You can argue that it isn't good enough, or it is too cumbersome, but it isn't "no recourse".
As for going into debt to qualify for a mortagage.. eh. All you have to do is put your routine expenses on a credit card and pay it off in full each month. You get free use of money and you build credit history. If you can't do that (other than in a number of exceptional situations), you probably shouldn't qualify for a mortgage.
(emphasis mine)
I do not think that word means what you think it means. In the context of taxes, it's not a meaningless epithet; the sales tax is not progressive, it is flat.
THERE ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ANY STATE TAXES ON INTERSTATE COMMERCE. IT IS CALLED THE CONSTITUTION.
Yes, I know the claim is that use taxes aren't on interstate commerce. They're supposed to be on the "use" of an item within a state by one of its residents. But given the the deduction (or, sometimes, exemption) for goods on which other state sales taxes have been paid, this is nothing but a fig leaf for most goods.
Didn't one Pakistan ISP rather graphically demonstrate problems with BGP when they null-routed YouTube worldwide?
You're right about being able to install the OS, but 17 USC 117 won't save Psystar. Forget, for the moment, the EULA.
Note that last bit. Psystar is selling systems with OS X pre-installed. Because the pre-installed copy is NOT an exact copy, it is an adaptation, and that section is quite clear that transferring adaptations authorized by 17 USC 117(a) requires consent of the copyright holder.
So it's copyright violation, plain and simple, no need for any licensing theories.
Which is fine, if you know what all those tasks are ahead of time. There are comparatively few environments like that.
Maybe not. But blocking /. doesn't really make anything more secure either. Blocking everything except sites you think are "needed" might... except when you're wrong about exactly what's needed. And the day your lockdown keeps someone from getting their work done (which will be sooner rather than later), they are going to finally get a chance to vent all that pent-up frustration over your blocking policy.
Gardening is hot, sweaty, sometimes backbreaking work. If you've got any allergies, you'll be sneezing and/or blistered all the time. If you slack off a bit, your work for a season or more is wasted. And you've still got security threats, in the form of rodents, ruminants, insects, and the slower but more tenacious weeds.
IMO, the security mindset as described in that article won't hurt you. What will hurt you is trying to counter the threats that mindset helps you find. By locking everything down and distrusting everyone, you make your co-workers your enemy. You also stop them from getting work done, making management (except for whoever security's patron on the board is) your enemy too. Who wants to do a job which makes everyone hate you, and for good reason? Leave it to the less competent. Or find a place where that level of security is both appropriate and understood by all, like a bank or the IRS or developing country's nuclear weapons pro... err, skip that last
If you think we're promoting piracy, you're free to write software that runs without hardware. Drop us a little note to let us know how that works out, why don't you?
Sincerely,
The Hardware Manufactures
P.S. You frigging parasites
The GPL requires you to include the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable. It does not require you to provide the knowledge needed to use those scripts, if it's all in someone's head. So having "build gurus" doesn't necessarily put you out of compliance, though it might make it hard to demonstrate you are in compliance.
I was thinking about something more along the lines of "So You've Decided To Steal Cable", only for file-sharing.
The message I get from the comic is "Get caught pirating, save someone's home". Also that copyright violations are handled as criminal complaints in city courts (???!!!)
But no prior restraint here.
Most such restrictions get shot down in court; if it's about profanity in particular, they fall afoul not only of freedom of speech but of religion as well.
Again, no prior restraint here. And what constitutes a threat is reasonably narrowly defined, though prosecutors are always trying to stretch it
You have, perhaps, heard of the Pentagon Papers case? Where the Washington Post and the New York Times could not be enjoined from publishing classified information?
It's awfully hard to commit treason with public speech. Laws against sedition, on the other hand, have a long history of violating freedom of speech.
No, I've got them stored up from previous discussions with the "if we only..." types who vastly overestimate the potential and vastly underestimate the difficulty of these renewable sources.
On the contrary, the post was phrased in specifics, like putting solar panels on my roof (which, with a small roof at ~40N latitude, isn't going to be at all worthwhile). And about putting wind turbines locally, despite that there aren't wind resources rated better than "fair" in the whole state -- and the closest of those are located in the mountains, which makes things that much harder. Even New Jersey with its seacoast gets no better than "Good" (4 in a scale of 1-7) -- and that only on the barrier islands.
Don't think so. Some pretty high flags were still today.
Thousands of square feet? My house isn't that big. As for waste... sorry, I follow the laws of thermodynamics, so waste is inevitable.
The overall climate has been stable for millions of years. Stable within some rather large limits, but stable. For it to have been unstable, you'd have to have an ice age that never ended but instead resulted in the earth either cooling without bound or entering a new, colder, equilibrium. Or runaway greenhouse. Or some other such major permaent change.