Am I missing something? I turned it on right now, and it is just a group of brits sitting around a table in a pub. I have no clue
what they are saying as every other words is bleeped out.
That's definitely an interesting MMORPG they've got there.
Indeed, I am absolutely convinced that this is merely a publicity stunt.
On Sunday I came across a bot that was farming runecloth up in Deadwind Pass. It was a hunter with a pet, and it would always sick the pet on the mob and then shoot it from range. It apparently was not a smartly made bot, as I first noticed it when it got stuck behind some rocks for about 45 seconds just running in the same direction. It also left aspect of the cheetah on, and would constantly run through fires getting dazed. It also occasionally would run back to corpses it had already looted to try and loot it again for whatever reason. A friend and I watched it do its thing for about an hour before reporting it.
The next morning I had received this e-mail from Blizzard:
We were able to investigate the character(s) that you have reported, and are taking the appropriate actions. Please note, that due to privacy considerations we will not be able to tell you the results of our investigation. If you need additional assistance, please submit another petition when you next log in; we will be happy to assist.
And guess what? As of today, the bot is still out there in the exact same location farming the same group of mobs. Bloody disappointing, let me tell you.
In the region of Germany i am currently , i belive a large percentage of the enegry is derived from wind power(a commen sight when driving around here are collections of wind turbines)
Which region are you in? I know that according to the 1998 Landesraumordnungsplan for Schleswig-Holstein the goal is that by the year 2010 25% of the energy supply there should be produced by wind energy.
I think wind power definitely has a lot of potential, and it is pleasing to see that quite a number of countries are beginning to invest in these technologies.
I just finished writing my Master's thesis, and a small part of it was on the consideration of renewable energy policy in spatial planning in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany. Denmark is currently the world leader in wind energy as a percentage of overall electricity production.
According to the Danish Energy Authority (Energistyrelsen), in 2004 wind energy accounted for 18.5% of the total domestic supply. In January 2005, due to extremely good wind conditions, wind energy provided 32% of the total domestic supply.
Of course, smaller states like Denmark often have the benefit in areas such as this. But when researching, I was still quite surprised at just how far Denmark has come.
So far, I havn't been too impressed with Sweden or the apartment I am living in. After 4 weeks my new apartment is still without furniture, despite me paying 200 kr a month for furniture rental and talking to everyone I can who might have any power over that fact. I'm still sleeping on the floor in the corner of my empty room. Up until a week ago, I didn't even have light/electricity. And the apartment is supposed to have that all included.
Not to mention that it is a three room apartment (it is a family apartment that has been rented out by the studentbostad for students), yet they crammed three Pakistanis into one room, so now I am living with four other people, with no furniture, and no internet access.
If I didn't know any better, I might even think Sweden was a third world country.
Honestly, I am rather amazed at the human body's ability to seemingly tolerate the presence of these toxic chemicals for at least the short term.
Unfortunately, it is rather difficult to say what will happen in the long term.
With such chemicals like DDT, which continues to remain at high levels in the surrounding environment despite having been banned in 1970. I wrote a couple papers on the role of DDT in the decline of the Californian Condor, and it is really a scary chemical.
Some scientists are even beginning to look at a link between DDT levels and breast cancer, as DDT and several other pesticides, which are absorbed and stored long-term in fat, also are capable of causing hormonal changes by acting much like estrogen. The unnatural changes caused by the continuing presence and buildup of DDT in mammary tissue could understandably be a large factor in the rising occurence of breast cancer. It could also have some particularly negative affect in men as well, as it acts as a blocker to the normal male hormones.
And that is just one of the chemicals commonly found in the body, as described in the article...
Re:Your tax dollars at work, folks.
on
Bill Nye's Marsdial
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· Score: 5, Informative
I think the overall cost of this would be negligible when considered in the scope of things.
Also, it appears as though Bill Nye essentially only modified the design of the color post that they were sending up that was originally meant to better calibrate the color tinting on the cameras. From the article:
"NASA had planned to calibrate using an erect post set in a color chart. The idea was to compare various colors in shadow and direct light to accurately adjust the natural tint.
A post? A shadow?
When Nye saw the color-calibration method planned for the rover, he realized it would just take one small step for mankind to transform the device into a sundial. He could add function without adding weight. Eureka! Nye was ecstatic."
I always really thought this guy was really amazing. From what I've seen, he actually has the somewhat rare ability to make science interesting for kids to learn and experiment with. I may be a bit biased though, as growing up here in WA, we often watched his videos in class when it dealt with the particular scientific subject that we studying at the time.
One time, he even came to the elementary school I went to and gave a presentation on precipitation and weather patterns. It was actually one of the most entertaining presentations I ever saw at school. I havn't heard anything about what he has been up to in years, but I'm glad to see that he is still actively contributing to the world, and perhaps continuing to interest kids with his wierd experiments.
Yeah, the neighborhood that the guy lives in is one of the lower class places around here. It is located right on the outskirts of Kent, and about a half a mile down the road south it turns into Auburn Way and enters the Auburn city limits. Only small parts of the trailer park are actually visible from the main road, which is lined mostly with stores.
The Kent municipal court is located right to the west of the southern part of the neighborhood, so if the person who ever stole the guy's Segway is caught, then it won't be a long walk to court.
Aside from that, there is just a a few smaller stores. To the west of the middle of the neighborhood (the long north/south building) used to be a thrift store along the lines of Goodwill/value village, but recently it was turned into a combination arcade and indoor paintball place (no idea how that works). There are a few other stores like a NAPA Autoparts, a car dealership that specializes in american musclecars, a Jiffy Lube, and the smaller complexes have lot of little businesses, like a doll shop (not the blow up kind), a Rainbow vacuum cleaner store, and a foam shop. There is also a set of apartments on the west side of Central Ave, along with the prerequisite storage rental place. If you go a bit further north there is a church, a huge liquidation outlet store, and a refridgerated trucking company(I believe). About 1/4 of a mile north from there are a couple pubs, along with the adult toy/video store...err...
I have only been to a couple of the stores around the vicinity of that area just for lack of a reason to, but it is traditionally the kind of area one sees around the outskirts of a rather large city, lower grade commercial businesses, some trailer parks crammed into any space available, whose inhabitants it seems are always standing at the metro bus stop signs.
Overall, when driving through that part it seems to have a run down look, especially due to the barely functioning pub signs, the sex goodies shop, and the discount second-hand baby clothing/item store (I think they all go hand in hand), but this area isn't really indicative of the look of the rest of Kent.
As a resident of Washington state (living in Kent), it surely seems like it has been getting a lot of attention lately. I can't help but wonder what will happen next.
The whole place seems to be going to hell in a handbasket! I mean, NEV's being legalized for road use, Segways being stolen, videogames having limitations put on them...I think something serious is going on. Somehow, all of them must be connected.
I'm sure the truth will uncover itself eventually...
Or hey, at least all the news makes for an interesting read.
That is pretty wild. I actually live here in Kent, Washington, and everyday I commute down Central Ave S, which is very close to where he lives.
Anyways, about a month and a half ago, I actually saw the first Segway I have ever seen, and it was right in that area. I was driving at the time, so it caught me off guard, but some old guy was riding it down the sidewalk. I couldn't help laughing out loud because it looked so utterly ridiculous. I think it might actually have been this guy though, as he was an old guy, and the article says that this guy is 62, especially when one considers how many people there are in Kent who would actually shell out the kind of money they want for these things.
I almost feel sorry for him now though, as that is quite a bit of money to spend on a nearly useless "personal transport" just to have it disappear one night.
On the topic of fire, several years ago, my friend's apartment burnt down. After the fire, and the water damage, almost nothing was recoverable. His computer case was obviously fried, and we never attempted to plug it in, but his monitor, though the plastic around the screen was blackened and melted, was still recognizable. When we plugged it in, it appeared to still power up, so he cleaned it up a little and was able to get the soot/whatever off of the screen and get rid of most of the smell of the burnt plastic. He kept it stored until he could get a new system.
When he received a new case a few months later, he hooked up the monitor, and the thing still worked. I still have no idea why or how it worked, but he kept using his grotesquely charred monitor for at least a year afterwards. If anything, it made quite the conversational piece.
IG Farben itself has quite an extensive history for anyone interested, especially with regard to its member's roles in WWI (manufacturing chlorine gas and potassium nitrate, which helped to alleviate Germany's dependance on Chilean imports) and WWII (producing poison gases, running work camps, ie Auschwitz). It was an incredibly huge and productive industry, also producing many other things, such as artifical rubber.
After WWII, most of the assets of the IG were transferred to Agfa, Hoechst, Bayer, and of course BASF. If I recall correctly though, the IG is actually going to be dissolved some time in 2003, though I am not sure when. Anyone know when this is scheduled to happen?
I'm definitely looking forward to some of the products that BASF is developing, especially the hydrogen gas battery. That is going to nice if/when it ever reaches the masses.
The problem that I see with your proposal is that the correctional system is the will of the people. A service which is provided by our government in return for tax money, which is designed (in theory) to incarcerate those who have committed a crime, in order to prevent them from committing further crimes.
In the case of the RIAA, we are talking about a group of for-profit enterprises that feels they should be entitled to levy a tax against the whole of internet service providers in the U.S.
In this case, the RIAA is protecting its own interests by trying to implement a system which really has no true benefit for the end user, besides taking the money of people, regardless of whether they do download music or not. This, compared to the correctional system, which is designed (again in theory) to serve the need to incarcerate and possibly reintegrate people into society, which as a whole provides an invaluable service to the people of the US.
It does seem like a rather weird choice for the name, since in the myth Prometheus was the Titan who stole fire from heaven and gave it to mankind, and like you said, was afterwards punished by Zeus.
Perhaps they have been watching too much Stargate SG-1, seeing as though the ship they were building was also named Prometheus. Weird coincidence maybe?
Either way, it seems to be a weird name for the Mars mission.
Wouldn't naturally occuring radioactive elements cause problems with that a little? Or do they have the ability to sort out the different forms and identify only those that are not naturally occuring?
Well, apparently Disney and Hollywood itself seem to have the ultimate goal of controlling the consumers and their end of it and more. The amount of time and money spent on all of that must be exhorbitant.
Just think...if just half of their effort that was spent on influencing government regulations were focused on truly making artistic/good movies, think of the truly creative products they could come up with, isntead of rehashing old ideas. Especially with Disney's latest movie, which did rather horrible at the movies. I can see why.
The new ADSL2 Standard has the ability to double downstream data rates up to over 20mbps, yet the new standard only increases the reach by 600 feet? Sure the downstream increase would be nice, but it doesn't seem like you are reaching much of a new market. Is the change over to ADSL2 Standard mandatory? If not, then it seems like the companies would want to be wary about investing in the changeover since it is still really limited on the distance from the central location.
What will the costs be, as compared to the old standard? One would think that coming up with this new ADSL2 standard would be allow them to increase their range more than just 600 feet, which unfortunately leaves me off the list of getting any broadband in the future.
Is there someone who could shed some light as to why the limitations on the ADSL2 standard have barely been increased?
This new department of Information Awareness in the Pentagon really scares the heck out of me too. I mean...we're talking about a database designed to store just about every piece of information about an individual that is possible to get.
Another thing I found really disturbing was Bush's appointment of John Poindexter as head of the new project. Poindexter was one of the people in the Reagan administration who was convicted for taking part in the Iran-Contra affair, though his conviction was overturned due to a technical error. And now this guy who played a role in selling missiles to Iran to fund a war in Nicaragua is in charge of keeping a database of about everyone out there.
Granted, maybe this guy has changed, and admittedly I don't have all the information on this guy's background, just what I have read in various classes. I just really hope that this database gets curtailed (which in my opinion would be best), or at least some form of strong congressional oversight...
The Sat Pics
on
Earth as Art
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· Score: 2, Insightful
These pictures are stunningly beautiful, especially in the Scandinavian area. I noticed the news announcement on another site a few days ago and I fell in love with the picture of the Icelandic peninsulas. They're nice enough to provide rather detailed images, and I've been using that one as my wallpaper image ever since.
I do hope they expand their collection a bit in the future though, as though the ones they have are amazing, I would really like to see some more, especially in the area of Europe, which seems to be somewhat lacking.
The northern passage provides the most benefit for routes between northern Europe (Scandinavian countries, England, Germany, Russia) and the west coast of the US. For example, with the passage open, the route length between Norway and the West Coast of Canada would be cut by over 3350 miles (5391 km).
A year or so ago in my European Studies class we had a speaker from the University of Trondheim in Norway, Willy Østreng, who is an expert on the northwest passage and it the various areas associated with it. He also has a book out titled "The National and Societal Challenges of the Northern Sea Route: A Reference Work" Østreng has been trying for years to get various countries to recognize the importance and possibilities of the Arctic passage, both as an economic factor, and the various environmental problems that would be associated with it too, but for many countries this area has only been seen in terms of military importance, especially in the past during the cold war. It looks like some of these countries are starting to pay attention, especially the US.
I think it is a rather interesting topic myself and one that the various governments with a partial stake in it should be further investigating. The northwest passages provides a very good alternative to the Suez canal, which has been closed twice since WWII, and could possibly get closed again if war were to somehow break out in that area. The northwest passage also eliminates over 3350 miles in the route from Trellheim, Norway to the west coast of Canada, which could improve trade between these areas.
Some of these new games coming out are really awesome, but I find myself disappointed in the lack of games that still provide single player action. So many of them are going multiplayer only, and that leaves out a large group of people still stuck in the stone age with mdoems like me. Good thing I've still got Lan parties to fall back on for good entertainment.
I'd also love to get into translator work, but with my native language being English, it is incredibly difficult to find a language which is lacking for speakers that can speak English better than I can speak their language.
Well, as a Washingtonian, I'm glad to see that they're at least actually delving into other options than those already on the table.
With Washington having the second highest unemployment rate in the country, 7.5%, with oregon being the highest, 8.0%(Current Data Jan 2002, Bureau of Labor Statistics), the situation here is beginning to get downright nasty.
Coupled with all the layoffs in the hard hit sectors(Boeing, etc) and the anti-tax inititiatives by Tim Eyman that have been passed, such as the ones that limited car tabs to $30, or the one last year limiting property tax increases to 1%, the state legislators have been forced to seek other sources of revenue. Granted, they always find loopholes to nullify the anti-tax initiatives, or to get at least a portion of the tax from the areas.
Anyway, to get back to the point, many of the people of Washington really enjoy the services the government provides, yet due to the way taxes have been handled in the past few years (Especially in King County, the largest country) people are rather stoicly opposed to any new taxes. So, the government is forced to try and find additional sources of revenue. Right now, they're working on cutting any extras from the budget, borrowing against Tobacco settlements, and implementing a gas tax. These won't be enough to cover the projected deficit should it actually turn out as projected, so at least legislators are looking somewhere(instead of the infamous bickering they're known for), though I don't believe Software is the best solution.
Hmm...Yesterday there was two articles about the use of the DMCA by Nintendo and Blizzard, and now there are two articles in YRO that talk about how Canada is upholding citizen rights...Coincidence?
Slashdot Mirror
Am I missing something? I turned it on right now, and it is just a group of brits sitting around a table in a pub. I have no clue what they are saying as every other words is bleeped out.
That's definitely an interesting MMORPG they've got there.
On Sunday I came across a bot that was farming runecloth up in Deadwind Pass. It was a hunter with a pet, and it would always sick the pet on the mob and then shoot it from range. It apparently was not a smartly made bot, as I first noticed it when it got stuck behind some rocks for about 45 seconds just running in the same direction. It also left aspect of the cheetah on, and would constantly run through fires getting dazed. It also occasionally would run back to corpses it had already looted to try and loot it again for whatever reason. A friend and I watched it do its thing for about an hour before reporting it.
The next morning I had received this e-mail from Blizzard:
And guess what? As of today, the bot is still out there in the exact same location farming the same group of mobs. Bloody disappointing, let me tell you.
Which region are you in? I know that according to the 1998 Landesraumordnungsplan for Schleswig-Holstein the goal is that by the year 2010 25% of the energy supply there should be produced by wind energy.
I think wind power definitely has a lot of potential, and it is pleasing to see that quite a number of countries are beginning to invest in these technologies.
I just finished writing my Master's thesis, and a small part of it was on the consideration of renewable energy policy in spatial planning in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany. Denmark is currently the world leader in wind energy as a percentage of overall electricity production.
According to the Danish Energy Authority (Energistyrelsen), in 2004 wind energy accounted for 18.5% of the total domestic supply. In January 2005, due to extremely good wind conditions, wind energy provided 32% of the total domestic supply.
Of course, smaller states like Denmark often have the benefit in areas such as this. But when researching, I was still quite surprised at just how far Denmark has come.
I can't believe how expensive broadband is.
So far, I havn't been too impressed with Sweden or the apartment I am living in. After 4 weeks my new apartment is still without furniture, despite me paying 200 kr a month for furniture rental and talking to everyone I can who might have any power over that fact. I'm still sleeping on the floor in the corner of my empty room. Up until a week ago, I didn't even have light/electricity. And the apartment is supposed to have that all included.
Not to mention that it is a three room apartment (it is a family apartment that has been rented out by the studentbostad for students), yet they crammed three Pakistanis into one room, so now I am living with four other people, with no furniture, and no internet access.
If I didn't know any better, I might even think Sweden was a third world country.
Unfortunately, it is rather difficult to say what will happen in the long term.
With such chemicals like DDT, which continues to remain at high levels in the surrounding environment despite having been banned in 1970. I wrote a couple papers on the role of DDT in the decline of the Californian Condor, and it is really a scary chemical.
Some scientists are even beginning to look at a link between DDT levels and breast cancer, as DDT and several other pesticides, which are absorbed and stored long-term in fat, also are capable of causing hormonal changes by acting much like estrogen. The unnatural changes caused by the continuing presence and buildup of DDT in mammary tissue could understandably be a large factor in the rising occurence of breast cancer. It could also have some particularly negative affect in men as well, as it acts as a blocker to the normal male hormones.
And that is just one of the chemicals commonly found in the body, as described in the article...
Also, it appears as though Bill Nye essentially only modified the design of the color post that they were sending up that was originally meant to better calibrate the color tinting on the cameras. From the article:
One time, he even came to the elementary school I went to and gave a presentation on precipitation and weather patterns. It was actually one of the most entertaining presentations I ever saw at school. I havn't heard anything about what he has been up to in years, but I'm glad to see that he is still actively contributing to the world, and perhaps continuing to interest kids with his wierd experiments.
The Kent municipal court is located right to the west of the southern part of the neighborhood, so if the person who ever stole the guy's Segway is caught, then it won't be a long walk to court.
Aside from that, there is just a a few smaller stores. To the west of the middle of the neighborhood (the long north/south building) used to be a thrift store along the lines of Goodwill/value village, but recently it was turned into a combination arcade and indoor paintball place (no idea how that works). There are a few other stores like a NAPA Autoparts, a car dealership that specializes in american musclecars, a Jiffy Lube, and the smaller complexes have lot of little businesses, like a doll shop (not the blow up kind), a Rainbow vacuum cleaner store, and a foam shop. There is also a set of apartments on the west side of Central Ave, along with the prerequisite storage rental place. If you go a bit further north there is a church, a huge liquidation outlet store, and a refridgerated trucking company(I believe). About 1/4 of a mile north from there are a couple pubs, along with the adult toy/video store...err...
I have only been to a couple of the stores around the vicinity of that area just for lack of a reason to, but it is traditionally the kind of area one sees around the outskirts of a rather large city, lower grade commercial businesses, some trailer parks crammed into any space available, whose inhabitants it seems are always standing at the metro bus stop signs.
Overall, when driving through that part it seems to have a run down look, especially due to the barely functioning pub signs, the sex goodies shop, and the discount second-hand baby clothing/item store (I think they all go hand in hand), but this area isn't really indicative of the look of the rest of Kent.
The whole place seems to be going to hell in a handbasket! I mean, NEV's being legalized for road use, Segways being stolen, videogames having limitations put on them...I think something serious is going on. Somehow, all of them must be connected.
I'm sure the truth will uncover itself eventually...
Or hey, at least all the news makes for an interesting read.
Anyways, about a month and a half ago, I actually saw the first Segway I have ever seen, and it was right in that area. I was driving at the time, so it caught me off guard, but some old guy was riding it down the sidewalk. I couldn't help laughing out loud because it looked so utterly ridiculous. I think it might actually have been this guy though, as he was an old guy, and the article says that this guy is 62, especially when one considers how many people there are in Kent who would actually shell out the kind of money they want for these things.
I almost feel sorry for him now though, as that is quite a bit of money to spend on a nearly useless "personal transport" just to have it disappear one night.
When he received a new case a few months later, he hooked up the monitor, and the thing still worked. I still have no idea why or how it worked, but he kept using his grotesquely charred monitor for at least a year afterwards. If anything, it made quite the conversational piece.
After WWII, most of the assets of the IG were transferred to Agfa, Hoechst, Bayer, and of course BASF. If I recall correctly though, the IG is actually going to be dissolved some time in 2003, though I am not sure when. Anyone know when this is scheduled to happen?
I'm definitely looking forward to some of the products that BASF is developing, especially the hydrogen gas battery. That is going to nice if/when it ever reaches the masses.
In the case of the RIAA, we are talking about a group of for-profit enterprises that feels they should be entitled to levy a tax against the whole of internet service providers in the U.S.
In this case, the RIAA is protecting its own interests by trying to implement a system which really has no true benefit for the end user, besides taking the money of people, regardless of whether they do download music or not. This, compared to the correctional system, which is designed (again in theory) to serve the need to incarcerate and possibly reintegrate people into society, which as a whole provides an invaluable service to the people of the US.
Perhaps they have been watching too much Stargate SG-1, seeing as though the ship they were building was also named Prometheus. Weird coincidence maybe?
Either way, it seems to be a weird name for the Mars mission.
Wouldn't naturally occuring radioactive elements cause problems with that a little? Or do they have the ability to sort out the different forms and identify only those that are not naturally occuring?
Just think...if just half of their effort that was spent on influencing government regulations were focused on truly making artistic/good movies, think of the truly creative products they could come up with, isntead of rehashing old ideas. Especially with Disney's latest movie, which did rather horrible at the movies. I can see why.
What will the costs be, as compared to the old standard? One would think that coming up with this new ADSL2 standard would be allow them to increase their range more than just 600 feet, which unfortunately leaves me off the list of getting any broadband in the future.
Is there someone who could shed some light as to why the limitations on the ADSL2 standard have barely been increased?
Another thing I found really disturbing was Bush's appointment of John Poindexter as head of the new project. Poindexter was one of the people in the Reagan administration who was convicted for taking part in the Iran-Contra affair, though his conviction was overturned due to a technical error. And now this guy who played a role in selling missiles to Iran to fund a war in Nicaragua is in charge of keeping a database of about everyone out there.
Granted, maybe this guy has changed, and admittedly I don't have all the information on this guy's background, just what I have read in various classes. I just really hope that this database gets curtailed (which in my opinion would be best), or at least some form of strong congressional oversight...
I do hope they expand their collection a bit in the future though, as though the ones they have are amazing, I would really like to see some more, especially in the area of Europe, which seems to be somewhat lacking.
The northern passage provides the most benefit for routes between northern Europe (Scandinavian countries, England, Germany, Russia) and the west coast of the US. For example, with the passage open, the route length between Norway and the West Coast of Canada would be cut by over 3350 miles (5391 km).
I think it is a rather interesting topic myself and one that the various governments with a partial stake in it should be further investigating. The northwest passages provides a very good alternative to the Suez canal, which has been closed twice since WWII, and could possibly get closed again if war were to somehow break out in that area. The northwest passage also eliminates over 3350 miles in the route from Trellheim, Norway to the west coast of Canada, which could improve trade between these areas.
Some of these new games coming out are really awesome, but I find myself disappointed in the lack of games that still provide single player action. So many of them are going multiplayer only, and that leaves out a large group of people still stuck in the stone age with mdoems like me. Good thing I've still got Lan parties to fall back on for good entertainment.
Computer Translation
I'd also love to get into translator work, but with my native language being English, it is incredibly difficult to find a language which is lacking for speakers that can speak English better than I can speak their language.
Well, as a Washingtonian, I'm glad to see that they're at least actually delving into other options than those already on the table.
With Washington having the second highest unemployment rate in the country, 7.5%, with oregon being the highest, 8.0%(Current Data Jan 2002, Bureau of Labor Statistics), the situation here is beginning to get downright nasty.
Coupled with all the layoffs in the hard hit sectors(Boeing, etc) and the anti-tax inititiatives by Tim Eyman that have been passed, such as the ones that limited car tabs to $30, or the one last year limiting property tax increases to 1%, the state legislators have been forced to seek other sources of revenue. Granted, they always find loopholes to nullify the anti-tax initiatives, or to get at least a portion of the tax from the areas.
Anyway, to get back to the point, many of the people of Washington really enjoy the services the government provides, yet due to the way taxes have been handled in the past few years (Especially in King County, the largest country) people are rather stoicly opposed to any new taxes. So, the government is forced to try and find additional sources of revenue. Right now, they're working on cutting any extras from the budget, borrowing against Tobacco settlements, and implementing a gas tax. These won't be enough to cover the projected deficit should it actually turn out as projected, so at least legislators are looking somewhere(instead of the infamous bickering they're known for), though I don't believe Software is the best solution.
Hmm...Yesterday there was two articles about the use of the DMCA by Nintendo and Blizzard, and now there are two articles in YRO that talk about how Canada is upholding citizen rights...Coincidence?