Hello,
Given that the current system of voting tends to reinforce the positions of the two major parties (e.g. you must vote for a candidate or for their closest challenger), have you given any though to supporting election reform as a method of making inroads for your party? It would seem that if all the 'second class' political parties supported election reform you would be able to make larger strides than trying to play the republicrat's game.
But he has made no secret of his opposition to the online sharing of copyrighted material. Last week he signed an executive order prohibiting state employees from using software designed for file sharing.
Hmmm, I would love to see how that one is worded. Since the internet only really works based off file sharing, That ban ought to include most windows OSes, most Linux Distros, software such as Mozilla, Netscape Navigator, IE, IIS, Apache and even stupid junk like MSN Messenger, ICQ, and a few MILLION other programs.
(standard rant about stupid politicians)
OK, now that that is out of the way, here is a way to make an example of Ah-nuld's silly legislation: Look up the exact wording of the legislation. Chances are they tried to describe the programs rather than explicitly name them. Then sue the state because state agency X,Y, and Z are using software that falls under the law. After a few rounds of write ups in the 'oddly enough' section of Reuters and court filings, the law will get voted off the books.
(I'm sorry mr Swartzheneckher, but the DMV is ENTIRELY shut down by your law. The voters aren't too happy, either...)
Probably for the same reason why Bush is 'getting' credit for shooting terroists in afghanistan, when Clinton spent the last eight years building up the nation's military capablility to deal with terrorists, despite the fact that Bush's staff blew off all of Clinton's warnings in 2000.
Life is is pretty complex, and you can't really really pin down who's fault the economy is, unless they do something pretty bad to screw it up.
That being said, the Economic downturn wasn't Bush's fault. Ignoring the economy to waste billions on Iraq is his fault. He gave irresponsable tax cuts to the rich. He has turned a balanced budget into a massive deficit.
I don't want my tax dollars bankrolling OSS dev efforts. If you wan't such a system, go ahead and create it. Put a paypal link on your sourceforge page, maybe someone will send you a buck.
Do you want to pay for buggy, easily exploitable software then? I can understand your desire not to waste money on "fantasy vapor product that doesn't exist..", but you are paying for Diebold's mess. And you are paying for paper voting, recounts, and all the supporting infrastructure. Personally, since money is being spent regardless, I'd like to see it go towards a rock solid solution that will last awhile. It seems that OSS would be an excellent candidate.
I am pretty good at reading people, and I have chatted with a bunch of the employees and managers there about what they were doing, where they needed to go, etc. and I didn't get any 'wierd vibes' of them. Have you ever had any interaction with them, other that following the Internet flamewar?
You are obviously convinced that there is some sort of evil machelavian plot going on inside IL, and I know better than to try to argue with a tinfoil hat birgade member. Personally, I stand by my assessment that the management is just stupid and inept. Here's hoping you are correct so you can enjoy being right.
Read much? The books have those "oliphants" as well.
Well, no actually, I don't. But I somehow seem to know that the battle at Osengard in the movie was radically out of whack with the books. Do you read much?
And no, my first criticism has plenty of merrit. From RTOK, p213:
...Legolas sprinted alongside the Oliphant, and like a deft crack-crazed monkey lept about the beast. "Whee", he though to himself, "I can single handedly slay all the riders and destroy the firing platform. It's a good thing I'm an ELF(tm) and can approach a ancient battle like an olympic gymnastics event! Badass ELFIN POWERS, activate!"
Say, what is the monitary renumeration that can be claimed for emotional damages due to being plagurized on/.? I'm very vunerable emotionally, you know...
I read the story, but my take on it is this: It's jaded overreaction. My arguments:
Microsoft has historically bent over backwards to make their software backwards compatable. You can run all sorts of outdated hardware on the Windows OS. The only reason that current versions of Windows won't install on a 386 (via software lockout) is because MS doesn't want your computing experience to be ruined because of hardware issues. ("Hey, W2003 is crappy because it runs too slow on this 386!")
Think about it, you still can run crusty old 16 bit apps on windows. Unless they had pressure from customers, why not do away with them, amd make people use software that would be more stable in a modern OS? So, my first point is, MS would get real heat if the tried to aggressively obsolete things. (gad-I just verbs a noun again.)
Second, don't forget that MS lives under the shaddow of the DoJ case. While they got off with a wrist slap, no sane manager at MS (Yes, I know...) is going to suggest a course of action that causes them to tangle with anti-trust issues again. BG has stepped down as #1 cheese. Why would he do that? Because he wants to get back to working with coders? Or, because his leadership style was percieved as too agressive? That is a pretty big step to take unless you REALLY have an issue with leadership.
While MS would like LINUX to go away, they aren't about to do anything that could get them into another round of lawsuits. Litagation is expensive and risky, even to Bill. Most companies with an ounce of brainmatter use it only as a last resort.
The big C writes some interesting stuff, but this strikes me as a little too reactionary. The sky isn't falling on LINUX (yet).
Has it actually escaped your attention that the good con artists always do? It's their primary stock in trade.
Well, that was my point. The employees were capable and intent on making the product. If the CEO really was a true con-artist, he would not have spent the money to work on developing ANYTHING, and just skipped town with the investors millions.
Having seen the operation from the inside, I'd say the company is really trying to make the console, and that management is just makeing some (very) bad moves in the PR department.
...Dupe stories are just as good to post bitchy comments as new ones...
Anyway, I wonder if the bounty is higher for spammers, because, a successful spammer will have more money that they can be fined for, to offset bounty reward payouts. I mean, how many terrorists have a million bucks stashed in the bank, and a expensive home in California? You can't fine em money and expect to get anything if they don't have money.
(I have an uncle who is a lawyer, and he joking once told me the first rule of being a lawyer is never sue poor people.)
Is Peter Jackson REALLY any better as a director than GL? Now, I loved that someone made a real attempt at LOTR, but I wouldn't say that the directing was anything amazing.
Think about it, it was Jackson that put in that wacked out, 'Oliphants are AT-ATs, and I'm a badass elf' crap. Why Peter? Did you really think that the audience would be bored at that point, and the film needed it? And the whole ending of the second movie with the siege of Ostigard (SP?), what was that about? A lot of his directoial blunders in the series were him adding in stuff that was intended to keep the excitement level up, but were just visual distractions.
Peter Jackson isn't that great of a director. He is a popular director.
First off, my feeling is that there shouldn't be any episodes 7-9, simply because the story is told and finished at the end of the furry midget fest, er RTOJ. However there has been a lot of buzz about the possibility of more SW films.
From the interview: Lucas: Ultimately, I'm going to probably move it into television and let other people take it. I'm sort of preserving the feature film part for what has happened and never go there again, but I can go off into various offshoots and things. You know, I've got offshoot novels, I've got offshoot comics. So it's very easy to say, "Well, OK, that's that genre, and I'll find a really talented person to take it and create it." Just like the comic books and the novels are somebody else's way of doing it. I don't mind that. Some of it might turn out to be pretty good. If I get the right people involved, it could be interesting.
Translation: I want to be the only one who gets to make cannon (movies), but I might let others spin off side stuff. I don't think this is a bad thing, as it might delay SW becomming the steaming pile of poop that Star Trek has become.
Here's my prediction: GL dies in another 10-20 years of a heart attack or something. GL's daughter wastes all the republic credits on fast cars and blow, and then in a effort to scrape up some more money, sells off the rights to a studio to make more films, merchandise, etc. One way or another, more SW WILL be made. It's just a question of when and by who.
See, it's like this. GL makes wacky changes to his films every couple of years. We just have to wait another 15 years or so for the 40th anniversiary, when he will re-edit it and have Han shooting first.
The only problems is, the (then) current generation of/. will be whining about how he changed it from what they grew up with, but, hey you can't have everything...
..right when this whole feud started. They seemed like nice enough people. The were set up in temp offices in Seattle's bank of America building. Most of the PMs are ex-Microsoft (No MS jokes please, we are torching IL right now...) and at the time they were looking to hire a ton of people. They had the hardware done (Although I never saw it, being a first interiew), and were looking at the software delivery system. The ranking manager came off as a bit odd, but I didn't get and sense of shysters trying to pull a fast one or clueless idiots who couldn't pull it off. If all the negative press about the president being totally evil/inept isn't true, I'd give the console a fifty percent chance of seeing the light of day.
The guys I talked to even thought that PA's shot at them was funny, so they have a sense of humor about all the press. I'm sort of glad I wasn't offered a job, though. Too much wierd stuff was happening.
THE SCENE: A COURTROOM. IT IS FILLED WITH MANY TENSE LAWYERS IN EXPENSIVE SUITS, HALF OF THEM ARE BLUE.
SCO SHILL: Your honor, most wise, humble and double wicked cool dud-
JUDGE: Get on with it.
SCO SHILL: *Ahem* In accordance with the 1887 ruling of the federal government vs. Keanu Reves, we would like you to summarily find for the plaintiff, SCO, and award damages to the tune of-
JUDGE: I'm not familiar with that ruling. Keanu Reves? 1887? If this is another delaying tactic counselor...
SCO SHILL: We request a three month period to shake down more, er, find um, evidence!
JUDGE: Denied. You haven't given a reason that there might be new evidenc introduced.
SCO SHILL: WE REQUEST A RECESS!
JUDGE: Denied. You just got back from one.
SCO SHILL: WE REQUEST AN EMERGENCY BATHROOM BREAK!
KEANU: (from the back of the courtroom) Woah.
...I think that the French Suck, Linux is cool, SCO is evil, Bill is Daryl's bastard father, Old SW is good, New SW is bad, New old SW is Lucas getting greedy, IPODs are a great way of pissing off the RIAA but not the MPAA by breaking the DMCA. Let's SPAM IRAQ, and George is a twinkee.
Oh,, and so I don't get modded as off topic by a humorless basement troll, I just typed up all that nonsesense while at work, and on the PAYROLL, BABY! Woohoo! Change the law all you want, I can still goof-off better than anyone...
Slashdot Mirror
Hello, Given that the current system of voting tends to reinforce the positions of the two major parties (e.g. you must vote for a candidate or for their closest challenger), have you given any though to supporting election reform as a method of making inroads for your party? It would seem that if all the 'second class' political parties supported election reform you would be able to make larger strides than trying to play the republicrat's game.
Yeah, I agree!
DAMN!
But he has made no secret of his opposition to the online sharing of copyrighted material. Last week he signed an executive order prohibiting state employees from using software designed for file sharing.
Hmmm, I would love to see how that one is worded. Since the internet only really works based off file sharing, That ban ought to include most windows OSes, most Linux Distros, software such as Mozilla, Netscape Navigator, IE, IIS, Apache and even stupid junk like MSN Messenger, ICQ, and a few MILLION other programs.
(standard rant about stupid politicians)
OK, now that that is out of the way, here is a way to make an example of Ah-nuld's silly legislation: Look up the exact wording of the legislation. Chances are they tried to describe the programs rather than explicitly name them. Then sue the state because state agency X,Y, and Z are using software that falls under the law. After a few rounds of write ups in the 'oddly enough' section of Reuters and court filings, the law will get voted off the books. (I'm sorry mr Swartzheneckher, but the DMV is ENTIRELY shut down by your law. The voters aren't too happy, either...)
We whine and bitch endlessly for and end to stupid, pointless DMR schemes. We pine for non-propritary formats. We wail when downloads are expensive.
And we complain when someone tells where it is.
You guys rock!
Probably for the same reason why Bush is 'getting' credit for shooting terroists in afghanistan, when Clinton spent the last eight years building up the nation's military capablility to deal with terrorists, despite the fact that Bush's staff blew off all of Clinton's warnings in 2000.
Life is is pretty complex, and you can't really really pin down who's fault the economy is, unless they do something pretty bad to screw it up.
That being said, the Economic downturn wasn't Bush's fault. Ignoring the economy to waste billions on Iraq is his fault. He gave irresponsable tax cuts to the rich. He has turned a balanced budget into a massive deficit.
Proper credit where credit is due...
I don't want my tax dollars bankrolling OSS dev efforts. If you wan't such a system, go ahead and create it. Put a paypal link on your sourceforge page, maybe someone will send you a buck.
Do you want to pay for buggy, easily exploitable software then? I can understand your desire not to waste money on "fantasy vapor product that doesn't exist..", but you are paying for Diebold's mess. And you are paying for paper voting, recounts, and all the supporting infrastructure. Personally, since money is being spent regardless, I'd like to see it go towards a rock solid solution that will last awhile. It seems that OSS would be an excellent candidate.
Hey Dibold, you ever hear that old saying, 'Vote early, vote often'?
Well, don't worry, I will...
I am pretty good at reading people, and I have chatted with a bunch of the employees and managers there about what they were doing, where they needed to go, etc. and I didn't get any 'wierd vibes' of them. Have you ever had any interaction with them, other that following the Internet flamewar?
You are obviously convinced that there is some sort of evil machelavian plot going on inside IL, and I know better than to try to argue with a tinfoil hat birgade member. Personally, I stand by my assessment that the management is just stupid and inept. Here's hoping you are correct so you can enjoy being right.
...Are you sure that you're not driving in Ballard?
Read much? The books have those "oliphants" as well.
...Legolas sprinted alongside the Oliphant, and like a deft crack-crazed monkey lept about the beast. "Whee", he though to himself, "I can single handedly slay all the riders and destroy the firing platform. It's a good thing I'm an ELF(tm) and can approach a ancient battle like an olympic gymnastics event! Badass ELFIN POWERS, activate!"
..Oh, wait. I guess you were right. Nevermind.
Well, no actually, I don't. But I somehow seem to know that the battle at Osengard in the movie was radically out of whack with the books. Do you read much?
And no, my first criticism has plenty of merrit. From RTOK, p213:
PRIOR ART! PRIOR ART! PLAGURISIM! LAWSUIT! HYSTERIA!
/.? I'm very vunerable emotionally, you know...
This guy is stealing all my best material!
Say, what is the monitary renumeration that can be claimed for emotional damages due to being plagurized on
Using a USB port to watch TV on your laptop sounds cool but doesn't the areial antenna get kind of heavy?
THANKS, FOLKS! I'LL BE HERE ALL WEEK!
I read the story, but my take on it is this: It's jaded overreaction. My arguments:
Microsoft has historically bent over backwards to make their software backwards compatable. You can run all sorts of outdated hardware on the Windows OS. The only reason that current versions of Windows won't install on a 386 (via software lockout) is because MS doesn't want your computing experience to be ruined because of hardware issues. ("Hey, W2003 is crappy because it runs too slow on this 386!")
Think about it, you still can run crusty old 16 bit apps on windows. Unless they had pressure from customers, why not do away with them, amd make people use software that would be more stable in a modern OS? So, my first point is, MS would get real heat if the tried to aggressively obsolete things. (gad-I just verbs a noun again.)
Second, don't forget that MS lives under the shaddow of the DoJ case. While they got off with a wrist slap, no sane manager at MS (Yes, I know...) is going to suggest a course of action that causes them to tangle with anti-trust issues again. BG has stepped down as #1 cheese. Why would he do that? Because he wants to get back to working with coders? Or, because his leadership style was percieved as too agressive? That is a pretty big step to take unless you REALLY have an issue with leadership.
While MS would like LINUX to go away, they aren't about to do anything that could get them into another round of lawsuits. Litagation is expensive and risky, even to Bill. Most companies with an ounce of brainmatter use it only as a last resort.
The big C writes some interesting stuff, but this strikes me as a little too reactionary. The sky isn't falling on LINUX (yet).
Has it actually escaped your attention that the good con artists always do? It's their primary stock in trade.
Well, that was my point. The employees were capable and intent on making the product. If the CEO really was a true con-artist, he would not have spent the money to work on developing ANYTHING, and just skipped town with the investors millions.
Having seen the operation from the inside, I'd say the company is really trying to make the console, and that management is just makeing some (very) bad moves in the PR department.
...Dupe stories are just as good to post bitchy comments as new ones...
Anyway, I wonder if the bounty is higher for spammers, because, a successful spammer will have more money that they can be fined for, to offset bounty reward payouts. I mean, how many terrorists have a million bucks stashed in the bank, and a expensive home in California? You can't fine em money and expect to get anything if they don't have money.
(I have an uncle who is a lawyer, and he joking once told me the first rule of being a lawyer is never sue poor people.)
Is Peter Jackson REALLY any better as a director than GL? Now, I loved that someone made a real attempt at LOTR, but I wouldn't say that the directing was anything amazing.
Think about it, it was Jackson that put in that wacked out, 'Oliphants are AT-ATs, and I'm a badass elf' crap. Why Peter? Did you really think that the audience would be bored at that point, and the film needed it? And the whole ending of the second movie with the siege of Ostigard (SP?), what was that about? A lot of his directoial blunders in the series were him adding in stuff that was intended to keep the excitement level up, but were just visual distractions.
Peter Jackson isn't that great of a director. He is a popular director.
First off, my feeling is that there shouldn't be any episodes 7-9, simply because the story is told and finished at the end of the furry midget fest, er RTOJ. However there has been a lot of buzz about the possibility of more SW films.
From the interview:
Lucas: Ultimately, I'm going to probably move it into television and let other people take it. I'm sort of preserving the feature film part for what has happened and never go there again, but I can go off into various offshoots and things. You know, I've got offshoot novels, I've got offshoot comics. So it's very easy to say, "Well, OK, that's that genre, and I'll find a really talented person to take it and create it." Just like the comic books and the novels are somebody else's way of doing it. I don't mind that. Some of it might turn out to be pretty good. If I get the right people involved, it could be interesting.
Translation: I want to be the only one who gets to make cannon (movies), but I might let others spin off side stuff. I don't think this is a bad thing, as it might delay SW becomming the steaming pile of poop that Star Trek has become.
Here's my prediction: GL dies in another 10-20 years of a heart attack or something. GL's daughter wastes all the republic credits on fast cars and blow, and then in a effort to scrape up some more money, sells off the rights to a studio to make more films, merchandise, etc. One way or another, more SW WILL be made. It's just a question of when and by who.
See, it's like this. GL makes wacky changes to his films every couple of years. We just have to wait another 15 years or so for the 40th anniversiary, when he will re-edit it and have Han shooting first.
/. will be whining about how he changed it from what they grew up with, but, hey you can't have everything...
The only problems is, the (then) current generation of
Oota Guta, Solo?
..right when this whole feud started. They seemed like nice enough people. The were set up in temp offices in Seattle's bank of America building. Most of the PMs are ex-Microsoft (No MS jokes please, we are torching IL right now...) and at the time they were looking to hire a ton of people. They had the hardware done (Although I never saw it, being a first interiew), and were looking at the software delivery system. The ranking manager came off as a bit odd, but I didn't get and sense of shysters trying to pull a fast one or clueless idiots who couldn't pull it off. If all the negative press about the president being totally evil/inept isn't true, I'd give the console a fifty percent chance of seeing the light of day.
The guys I talked to even thought that PA's shot at them was funny, so they have a sense of humor about all the press. I'm sort of glad I wasn't offered a job, though. Too much wierd stuff was happening.
"ISS, this is Huston. What is your status, over."
"Huston, we are bingo air. Repeat, we are bingo air. send some up on a redbird, over"
"ISS, that is a negative. Soyuz has dents in the fenders. Recomend you try that Jedi shit from episode one where they hold their breath, over."
"Huston, episode 1 sucked, over."
Wow, here's hoping everything turns out ok, the planet has had enough stuff go bad for manned space flight recently.
SWEET! Someone wasted a further mod point on my joke about modding a joke down as overrated.
/. is out to get me, or someone with modpoints has a wicked ironic sense of humor!
Either
Wow, I'm doing jokes about SCO, on Slashdot, and two people have modded me as 'Overrated'.
Isn't that a sign of impending Apocaplypse? Or is this just SCO guys quietly doing damage control...;-)
..but we need something to gossip about on /.
THE SCENE: A COURTROOM. IT IS FILLED WITH MANY TENSE LAWYERS IN EXPENSIVE SUITS, HALF OF THEM ARE BLUE.
SCO SHILL: Your honor, most wise, humble and double wicked cool dud-
JUDGE: Get on with it.
SCO SHILL: *Ahem* In accordance with the 1887 ruling of the federal government vs. Keanu Reves, we would like you to summarily find for the plaintiff, SCO, and award damages to the tune of-
JUDGE: I'm not familiar with that ruling. Keanu Reves? 1887? If this is another delaying tactic counselor...
SCO SHILL: We request a three month period to shake down more, er, find um, evidence!
JUDGE: Denied. You haven't given a reason that there might be new evidenc introduced.
SCO SHILL: WE REQUEST A RECESS!
JUDGE: Denied. You just got back from one.
SCO SHILL: WE REQUEST AN EMERGENCY BATHROOM BREAK!
KEANU: (from the back of the courtroom) Woah.
Yeah it's flonrky and sometimes kjimpul to mnaku the skroojules for all the walliwallis in the tumbputu.
Don't you agree?
...I think that the French Suck, Linux is cool, SCO is evil, Bill is Daryl's bastard father, Old SW is good, New SW is bad, New old SW is Lucas getting greedy, IPODs are a great way of pissing off the RIAA but not the MPAA by breaking the DMCA. Let's SPAM IRAQ, and George is a twinkee.
Oh,, and so I don't get modded as off topic by a humorless basement troll, I just typed up all that nonsesense while at work, and on the PAYROLL, BABY! Woohoo! Change the law all you want, I can still goof-off better than anyone...