The article states: "the measure has extensive protections that purge DNA information when a suspect or convict is exonerated."
Then I suppose you'd be OK with the police declaring every person who meets the criminal's description ("a tall Hispanic with a goatee") a "suspect", taking every "suspect's" DNA, comparing all "suspect's" samples to DNA taken from the crime scene or stored from previous, unrelated crimes, and then purging anyone for whom they didn't find a match?
How is that different in practice (if not convenience) from maintaining a DNA database of all persons, convicted or not?
Would you be willing to give the government a sample of your DNA? We've seen government abuse of databases before; do you really think all the J. Edgar Hoovers are gone?
It's felons and anyone arrested on felony charges. Whether or not they're subsequently convicted.
If someone is subsequently found not guilty, how is that person different than any other innocent person walking down the street? Why should his DNA be in the database and yours not be?
I don't know whether there's any possibility of a free "upgrade".
Yeah, I'd heard that the later editions didn't have this problem. But I got a copy soon after it came out. I suppose I should just spend another $18 bucks.
Just to clear up any confusion (and not because I think anyone is particularly interested in whatever constellation of beliefs I hold), I'll briefly address your assumptions about my ideology.
I'm not at all convinced that McCain-Feingold is a good idea. I think aspects of it probably are unconstitutional; at the same time, I also believe that influence peddling has reached the level of outright corruption, and is a major threat to democracy in the U.S.
As far as free speech for what you call "Evil Right Wing Nazi Hate Speech", I'm all for protecting the rights of Nazis and anybody else to free speech. I find Nazis morally repugnant, but I find censorship equally repugnant, and as a practical matter, I think the best way to unmask and discredit Nazis and their ilk is to let them open their mouths and spew their nonsense.
Sometimes, as in the Skokie march, Nazi speech will be painful to some; still, it's more important to protect freedom of speech and belief than to protect the feelings of listeners, even the survivors of the Nazi death camps. Again, this in no way lessens my disgust for Nazis, neo-Nazis, or other Fascists.
As far as the Christian speech you refer to in your link, it's not the place of the state -- as the First Amendment makes clear -- to support any religion. The girl has every right to talk about her devotion to Jesus; she doesn't have a right to state sponsorship of her speeches, however.
As to the Second Amendment, you've got me. I don't like guns, I don't trust guns, I wish no one had guns. But a right to bear arms is in the second amendment, so regardless of my personal feelings, I think that right needs to be upheld -- even if only to protect the sanctity of the rest of the Constitution. One reason I haven't joined the ACLU so far is that they don't protect the Second Amendment, or support the Bill of Rights across the board.
As to any other stereotypes you might hold about me: I didn't like Janet Reno much either. I thought the FBI agents at Ruby Ridge should have been prosecuted, and I think the ATF was out of control at Waco. I supported the impeachment of Clinton, and in fact I never voted for him.
Because of Clinton's lies, and the corruption in his administration, and his weakening of the Fourth Amendment, I was slightly hopeful when Bush was elected. Since then, Bush has squandered any regard for America abroad, and Ashcroft has equated dissent with terrorism, engaged in the sort of "judicial activism" conservatives claim to abhor, limited judges' discretion in sentencing, overridden states' rights, and over-applied the already overbroad Patriot Act. And suddenly I'm nostalgic for Clinton.
The idea of actually paying for music online is still regarded as satirical by some?
I'd be glad to pay for music online. I want to be able to buy music online. I'm willing to pay a fair price. Otherwise, I can't easily get music, because, as an ethical matter, I'm unwilling to play music I haven't acquired legally.
But these services don't sell music. They rent licenses to play music, and give no assurance the license will remain in existence if they go out of business, or my hard drive goes tits up, or I move to Canada, or I get a new portable.
iTunes does allow me to preserve a copy if I'm willing to sacrifice a CD-RW on the way to getting it on my hard drive where it's actually convenient.
But if I'm going to do all that, I'd just as soon buy a CD -- iTunes isn't that much less expensive -- and be able to re-rip if I decide to change formats in the future. (Eventually storage will be cheap enough for me to store FLACs or another lossless form of CDs on my hard drive.)
So buying online gives me instant gratification but future frustration. Buying in a store takes longer, but gives me a format that remains usable into the future, because I can control the format. So what's the compelling reason to buy online for me?
CO can't exactly claim the codes were under some form of encryption...
<Darl McBride>Not encrypted? Then why are they called codes? Any manager can see that. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, if Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must buy up my stock.</Darl McBride>
In fiction, Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver is toward the top of my best list.
Frankly, with my expectations based on Cryptonomicron, Quicksilver disappointed me. While it set the scene pretty well, and made its depiction of Stuart England after the Protectorate believable for me, the plot really went nowhere -- or it went too far afield.
And after about page 500, even the scenery began to dull, because so little was happening on the scenery. Plus, the clever ideas of Cryptonomicron were little in evidence; there was more exposition and less intellectual delight, even though one might think much could be done with a cast of characters including Newton, Leibniz and Hooke.
I've yet to come across a mass-market reader that matches the flexibility of paper (sorry!) and that won't kill me if I try to read in the bath...
I regularly read my Palm Pilot (actually, Handspring) in the bath, without problems.
eBooks can actually be more convenient than paper in some ways: the eBook is typically lighter than a paperback, and the "page" can be "turned" with on hand, given a suitable set up.
Does anyone actually think that the lack of a single format is scaring consumers away from ebooks, and solely because of this they've been a flop?
Well, I do, sort of. I have a Zaurus, and before that I had a Palm.
I liked to read ebooks on the Palm, and I liked it even better on the Zaurus. I read some classics, some popular science books made freely available by Dr. William Calvin, and some free Baen science fiction novels.
As it happens, I'd previously bought some of Dr. Calvin's books in soft and hard cover; reading his ebooks (actually, Plucked HTML) encouraged me to buy more. At least one of the Baen titles prompted me to buy its sequel in soft-cover -- and without having read the ebook, I'd never have heard of the author, and probably wouldn't have bought his book.
I went to fictionwise.com to get some books, but most of them were either in proprietary formats -- which the Zaurus can't read with any open source reader --, or in Palm.doc format -- which is technically lacking compared to, say, the Plucker format.
I signed up with fictionwise.com, and downloaded some of their freebies. Their version of.doc didn't play well with my reader on the Zaurus, so I emailed fictionwise, and explained I'd be happy to pay them for books, if I could read those books in Plucker format. I realized they'd only be willing to do this for books in unencrypted formats, but I figured that they could at least convert books in (unprotected) Palm.doc format.
Fictionwise, to their credit, did take they time to reply to me, but they reply was that they didn't have any interest in the Plucker format.
I haven't been back to fictionwise.com since.
I'm not a pirate. While I have about 10000 mp3s, all were legitimately obtained, most through the now sadly stunted emusic.com.
As someone who writes code, some of it GPL'd, I'm sensitive to copyright, and I don't want to violate anyone's copyright anymore than I want my copyright violated. As someone who writes code, some of it for profit, I know that artists and authors deserve compensation for their work, and I want to see them get that compensation, if only for the very selfish reason that I want them concentrating on creating their next work (so I can enjoy it) rather than concentrating on how to cadge some more Ramen noodles before malnutrition sets in.
Even if I didn't feel morally opposed to copyright "piracy", I really don't have the patience to browse KaZaa or whatever to find inferior rips and munged transcriptions of creative works. I have a few bucks in my pocket, and I'm not adverse to spending a few bucks on a good book or an good CD.
But that book or CD needs to be convenient to ne to. Publishers need to understand that DRM'd music files are worth less than nothing to me, because my portable MP3 player won't play them. DRM'd books are worth less than nothing to me, because my portable computer won't display them.
Were the music or the books in a accessible format, I'd put my money were my mouth is. I was happy to sign up with emusic (until they drastically limited downloads in November); I wanted to buy books from fictionwise.
But don't treat me like a dummy: I don't want it in a format I can't use, or must ask permission every time I use, or can't transfer from one machine or another, or (as with the PDF version of the ANSI C++ Standard) I can't copy at least small portions of to quote.
Do that, and I'll fall back on MP3s, and ASCII text, and in the case of the C++ Standard, the Draft Working Paper. Do that, and you've lost me as a customer. And once you've lost me as a customer, don't come weeping to me that it's piracy that destroyed your business model. Publishers have destroyed their business models all by themselves, by being more concerned about thwarting shop-lifters than pleasing paying customers.
Could you please tell me what the first amendment is
John, is that you, posting as Anonymous Coward?
We've missed you in Missouri ever since that dead guy beat you, but we've so proud during this Christmas season for all you've done to let those liberals know that America is a Christian nation!
Keep up the great work John, and know that I'll be voting for George Bush in 2004 to make sure you spend four more years as our Reichsminis-- I mean, Attorney General!
Re:lame acrylic things?
on
USB Menorah
·
· Score: -1, Flamebait
Jeez, if you're gonna be making fun religious hacks
USB Christ on the Crucifix, with LED stigmata and optional LED bleeding heart of Christ for Catholic buyers.
Amaze your children at Christmas time as they see Jesus's wounds pulsing to the beat of Jingle Bells and other holiday favorites!
Re:Morse code, eh?
on
USB Menorah
·
· Score: 2, Funny
President Elect was an excellent game, with (for a game) a realistic grasp of electoral politics based on a database of actual state-by-state results from 1964 to 1988.
One could run as various historical candidates, or make one's own candidate by selecting the candidate's position on various issues.
It's mostly a resource management game: you spent money and time on different states or regions to sway the voters in those places. The trick was knowing which states were swing states, and spending your time and money there.
The game ended on election night, with each state reporting in and showing percentages and the color of the candidate who won it. The states reported in on a staggered schedule based on local poll-closing time, and once or twice I even saw one candidate declared the winner, only to see it change when all votes in swing states had reported in.
If I were not watching the webcast of Don Knuth's 10th Annual Christmas Tree lecture at 4:15 pm PST, at http://scpd.stanford.edu/knuth/, I'd tip my hat to Strom Thurmond's illegitimate mixed-race daughter by playing Strom against Goldwater in 1964 tonight. If they made a copy updated with electoral data and demographics through 2004, I'd buy it in a minute.
[Instructions for disabling windows Messenger SErvice]
Your instructions are correct, but I'd note that getting spam Messenger pop-ups is an indication that the recipient either doesn't have, or has incorectly configured, his firewall.
Since not having a firewall opens you to many other abuses than just Messenger popups, better advice to affected users might be to get the free Kerio Personal Firewall, or another firewall product.
Getting a firewall and not disabling the Messenger Service also allows the several other Windows services that use Messenger for reporting to the end-user to continue to make those reports.
It would be possible (trivial?) to put a feature in our favourite open source browser to give a security warning when you visit such a URL
I have Proxomitron, the browser proxy, set up to place a button at the top and bottom of every page; clicking the button closes the browser with a javascript window.close().
The label of the button is the page address (and even in IE, it's the real address, as it's Proxomitron, not IE that's displaying the address), so I essentially have this feature already.
Of course, I could write a Proxomitron filter for some regexp of addresses, or alter the address (I already replace Gopher links, because of an IE exploit), or even suffix each link with a Slashdot-style [domain name in brackets].
Oh, and Proxomitron also wipes out most ads, removes dangerous javascript, gets rid of ActiveX controls and java apps and popups, etc.
Should a website name like www.microsoft.com be allowed as a username @ another website like that?
How, exactly would you enforce outlawing it?
Beyond that practicality, while I've never seen the use of @ in web addresses, I will say that I wouldn't want potentially "deceptive" email addresses outlawed.
That's because whenever a web site wants my address I give it its domain-name.tld@my-domain-name.tld. That's how I figure out who's misusing the address I gave them (few do) and how I automatically sort incoming email.
The public has no idea what a email blacklist is, or why they're important for fighting spammers.
As a member of the public, I want you to know that I am offended by your use of the term "blacklist".
It is offensive to all African-Americans and other People of Color. Why must "black" always be equated with "bad", when exploitative White male colonizers are the source of all evil in the world?
You might as well perpetuate the culture of oppression by referring to some disk drives as "Master", and some as "Slave".
I will petition the Los Angeles City Council to ban the use of these "blacklists" altogether!
I urge my fellow easily offended perpetually victimized knee-jerk progressives to join me in this vitally important crusade.
How do protable MP# [portable MP3] players do for recording?
The Archos Recorder models (Recorder & FM Recorder), as their names suggest record to MP3 format (not uncompressed), using either the Archos firmware or the far superior Rockbox (GPL'd replacement software).
The Archos models can record from line-in or from the built-in microphone (although this means quite a bit of noise when the hard drive spins up); the FM model can also record from the radio.
Slashdot Mirror
The article states: "the measure has extensive protections that purge DNA information when a suspect or convict is exonerated."
Then I suppose you'd be OK with the police declaring every person who meets the criminal's description ("a tall Hispanic with a goatee") a "suspect", taking every "suspect's" DNA, comparing all "suspect's" samples to DNA taken from the crime scene or stored from previous, unrelated crimes, and then purging anyone for whom they didn't find a match?
How is that different in practice (if not convenience) from maintaining a DNA database of all persons, convicted or not?
Would you be willing to give the government a sample of your DNA? We've seen government abuse of databases before; do you really think all the J. Edgar Hoovers are gone?
It's FELLONS (sic).
It's felons and anyone arrested on felony charges. Whether or not they're subsequently convicted.
If someone is subsequently found not guilty, how is that person different than any other innocent person walking down the street? Why should his DNA be in the database and yours not be?
I don't know whether there's any possibility of a free "upgrade".
Yeah, I'd heard that the later editions didn't have this problem. But I got a copy soon after it came out. I suppose I should just spend another $18 bucks.
Just to clear up any confusion (and not because I think anyone is particularly interested in whatever constellation of beliefs I hold), I'll briefly address your assumptions about my ideology.
I'm not at all convinced that McCain-Feingold is a good idea. I think aspects of it probably are unconstitutional; at the same time, I also believe that influence peddling has reached the level of outright corruption, and is a major threat to democracy in the U.S.
As far as free speech for what you call "Evil Right Wing Nazi Hate Speech", I'm all for protecting the rights of Nazis and anybody else to free speech. I find Nazis morally repugnant, but I find censorship equally repugnant, and as a practical matter, I think the best way to unmask and discredit Nazis and their ilk is to let them open their mouths and spew their nonsense.
Sometimes, as in the Skokie march, Nazi speech will be painful to some; still, it's more important to protect freedom of speech and belief than to protect the feelings of listeners, even the survivors of the Nazi death camps. Again, this in no way lessens my disgust for Nazis, neo-Nazis, or other Fascists.
As far as the Christian speech you refer to in your link, it's not the place of the state -- as the First Amendment makes clear -- to support any religion. The girl has every right to talk about her devotion to Jesus; she doesn't have a right to state sponsorship of her speeches, however.
As to the Second Amendment, you've got me. I don't like guns, I don't trust guns, I wish no one had guns. But a right to bear arms is in the second amendment, so regardless of my personal feelings, I think that right needs to be upheld -- even if only to protect the sanctity of the rest of the Constitution. One reason I haven't joined the ACLU so far is that they don't protect the Second Amendment, or support the Bill of Rights across the board.
As to any other stereotypes you might hold about me: I didn't like Janet Reno much either. I thought the FBI agents at Ruby Ridge should have been prosecuted, and I think the ATF was out of control at Waco. I supported the impeachment of Clinton, and in fact I never voted for him.
Because of Clinton's lies, and the corruption in his administration, and his weakening of the Fourth Amendment, I was slightly hopeful when Bush was elected. Since then, Bush has squandered any regard for America abroad, and Ashcroft has equated dissent with terrorism, engaged in the sort of "judicial activism" conservatives claim to abhor, limited judges' discretion in sentencing, overridden states' rights, and over-applied the already overbroad Patriot Act. And suddenly I'm nostalgic for Clinton.
The idea of actually paying for music online is still regarded as satirical by some?
I'd be glad to pay for music online. I want to be able to buy music online. I'm willing to pay a fair price. Otherwise, I can't easily get music, because, as an ethical matter, I'm unwilling to play music I haven't acquired legally.
But these services don't sell music. They rent licenses to play music, and give no assurance the license will remain in existence if they go out of business, or my hard drive goes tits up, or I move to Canada, or I get a new portable.
iTunes does allow me to preserve a copy if I'm willing to sacrifice a CD-RW on the way to getting it on my hard drive where it's actually convenient.
But if I'm going to do all that, I'd just as soon buy a CD -- iTunes isn't that much less expensive -- and be able to re-rip if I decide to change formats in the future. (Eventually storage will be cheap enough for me to store FLACs or another lossless form of CDs on my hard drive.)
So buying online gives me instant gratification but future frustration. Buying in a store takes longer, but gives me a format that remains usable into the future, because I can control the format. So what's the compelling reason to buy online for me?
CO can't exactly claim the codes were under some form of encryption...
<Darl McBride>Not encrypted? Then why are they called codes? Any manager can see that. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, if Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must buy up my stock.</Darl McBride>
Linus is setting SCO up for something similar
The bomb?
In fiction, Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver is toward the top of my best list.
Frankly, with my expectations based on Cryptonomicron, Quicksilver disappointed me. While it set the scene pretty well, and made its depiction of Stuart England after the Protectorate believable for me, the plot really went nowhere -- or it went too far afield.
And after about page 500, even the scenery began to dull, because so little was happening on the scenery. Plus, the clever ideas of Cryptonomicron were little in evidence; there was more exposition and less intellectual delight, even though one might think much could be done with a cast of characters including Newton, Leibniz and Hooke.
I've yet to come across a mass-market reader that matches the flexibility of paper (sorry!) and that won't kill me if I try to read in the bath...
I regularly read my Palm Pilot (actually, Handspring) in the bath, without problems.
eBooks can actually be more convenient than paper in some ways: the eBook is typically lighter than a paperback, and the "page" can be "turned" with on hand, given a suitable set up.
Really, it made for easier bath-tub reading.
Does anyone actually think that the lack of a single format is scaring consumers away from ebooks, and solely because of this they've been a flop?
.doc format -- which is technically lacking compared to, say, the Plucker format.
.doc didn't play well with my reader on the Zaurus, so I emailed fictionwise, and explained I'd be happy to pay them for books, if I could read those books in Plucker format. I realized they'd only be willing to do this for books in unencrypted formats, but I figured that they could at least convert books in (unprotected) Palm .doc format.
Well, I do, sort of. I have a Zaurus, and before that I had a Palm.
I liked to read ebooks on the Palm, and I liked it even better on the Zaurus. I read some classics, some popular science books made freely available by Dr. William Calvin, and some free Baen science fiction novels.
As it happens, I'd previously bought some of Dr. Calvin's books in soft and hard cover; reading his ebooks (actually, Plucked HTML) encouraged me to buy more. At least one of the Baen titles prompted me to buy its sequel in soft-cover -- and without having read the ebook, I'd never have heard of the author, and probably wouldn't have bought his book.
I went to fictionwise.com to get some books, but most of them were either in proprietary formats -- which the Zaurus can't read with any open source reader --, or in Palm
I signed up with fictionwise.com, and downloaded some of their freebies. Their version of
Fictionwise, to their credit, did take they time to reply to me, but they reply was that they didn't have any interest in the Plucker format.
I haven't been back to fictionwise.com since.
I'm not a pirate. While I have about 10000 mp3s, all were legitimately obtained, most through the now sadly stunted emusic.com.
As someone who writes code, some of it GPL'd, I'm sensitive to copyright, and I don't want to violate anyone's copyright anymore than I want my copyright violated. As someone who writes code, some of it for profit, I know that artists and authors deserve compensation for their work, and I want to see them get that compensation, if only for the very selfish reason that I want them concentrating on creating their next work (so I can enjoy it) rather than concentrating on how to cadge some more Ramen noodles before malnutrition sets in.
Even if I didn't feel morally opposed to copyright "piracy", I really don't have the patience to browse KaZaa or whatever to find inferior rips and munged transcriptions of creative works. I have a few bucks in my pocket, and I'm not adverse to spending a few bucks on a good book or an good CD.
But that book or CD needs to be convenient to ne to. Publishers need to understand that DRM'd music files are worth less than nothing to me, because my portable MP3 player won't play them. DRM'd books are worth less than nothing to me, because my portable computer won't display them.
Were the music or the books in a accessible format, I'd put my money were my mouth is. I was happy to sign up with emusic (until they drastically limited downloads in November); I wanted to buy books from fictionwise.
But don't treat me like a dummy: I don't want it in a format I can't use, or must ask permission every time I use, or can't transfer from one machine or another, or (as with the PDF version of the ANSI C++ Standard) I can't copy at least small portions of to quote.
Do that, and I'll fall back on MP3s, and ASCII text, and in the case of the C++ Standard, the Draft Working Paper. Do that, and you've lost me as a customer. And once you've lost me as a customer, don't come weeping to me that it's piracy that destroyed your business model. Publishers have destroyed their business models all by themselves, by being more concerned about thwarting shop-lifters than pleasing paying customers.
John, is that you, posting as Anonymous Coward?
We've missed you in Missouri ever since that dead guy beat you, but we've so proud during this Christmas season for all you've done to let those liberals know that America is a Christian nation!
And thanks for making us safer by
- imprisoning American citizen terrorists indefinitely without trial or even without access to lawyers,
- and for sending that Canadian Muslim (All Muslims are terrorists!) to be tortured by Syria.
As good Christians, we especially feel safer now that- Tommy Chong's in the federal pen for selling glass pipes over the internet,
- and now that you've made it difficult for the terminally ill to get pot despite it being legal under California state law,
- and are making sure those terminally ill people can't die with dignity in Oregon
John, I want you to know that the name John Ashcroft will be remembered for years in association with liberty in America!After all you've done to dismantle that pesky Fourth Amendment with the Patriot Act, it's especially heartening to learn that you don't know what the First Amendment is!
Keep up the great work John, and know that I'll be voting for George Bush in 2004 to make sure you spend four more years as our Reichsminis-- I mean, Attorney General!
Jeez, if you're gonna be making fun religious hacks
USB Christ on the Crucifix, with LED stigmata and optional LED bleeding heart of Christ for Catholic buyers.
Amaze your children at Christmas time as they see Jesus's wounds pulsing to the beat of Jingle Bells and other holiday favorites!
They gladly pays it for a two person dinner that lasts one hour
Gollum? Are those nasty Hobbitses Sam and Frodo not inviting you to join them for dinner again?
They gladly eats the raw fishes that should be Gollum's?
As a civil libertarian, I have no problems with this technology being used to track children
As a civil libertarian, do you have a problem with
newlines
or separate paragraphs?
As a fellow civil libertarian, I suggest that you'll get your message read by more people if it's not one continuous block of text.
[snip: lots and lots of comments revealing the very perceptive poster must have watched the LOTR movies very closely and very many times.]
/voice>
Here's something I noticed about the parent post. I think William Shatner said it best on Saturday Night Live:
<Voice='William Shatner'>Get... a... life!<
President Elect was an excellent game, with (for a game) a realistic grasp of electoral politics based on a database of actual state-by-state results from 1964 to 1988.
One could run as various historical candidates, or make one's own candidate by selecting the candidate's position on various issues.
It's mostly a resource management game: you spent money and time on different states or regions to sway the voters in those places. The trick was knowing which states were swing states, and spending your time and money there.
The game ended on election night, with each state reporting in and showing percentages and the color of the candidate who won it. The states reported in on a staggered schedule based on local poll-closing time, and once or twice I even saw one candidate declared the winner, only to see it change when all votes in swing states had reported in.
If I were not watching the webcast of Don Knuth's 10th Annual Christmas Tree lecture at 4:15 pm PST,
at http://scpd.stanford.edu/knuth/, I'd tip my hat to Strom Thurmond's illegitimate mixed-race daughter by playing Strom against Goldwater in 1964 tonight.
If they made a copy updated with electoral data and demographics through 2004, I'd buy it in a minute.
[Instructions for disabling windows Messenger SErvice]
Your instructions are correct, but I'd note that getting spam Messenger pop-ups is an indication that the recipient either doesn't have, or has incorectly configured, his firewall.
Since not having a firewall opens you to many other abuses than just Messenger popups, better advice to affected users might be to get the free Kerio Personal Firewall, or another firewall product.
Getting a firewall and not disabling the Messenger Service also allows the several other Windows services that use Messenger for reporting to the end-user to continue to make those reports.
Probably one of the best writers of science fiction.
And inventor of the water-bed.
It would be possible (trivial?) to put a feature in our favourite open source browser to give a security warning when you visit such a URL
I have Proxomitron, the browser proxy, set up to place a button at the top and bottom of every page; clicking the button closes the browser with a javascript window.close().
The label of the button is the page address (and even in IE, it's the real address, as it's Proxomitron, not IE that's displaying the address), so I essentially have this feature already.
Of course, I could write a Proxomitron filter for some regexp of addresses, or alter the address (I already replace Gopher links, because of an IE exploit), or even suffix each link with a Slashdot-style [domain name in brackets].
Oh, and Proxomitron also wipes out most ads, removes dangerous javascript, gets rid of ActiveX controls and java apps and popups, etc.
Should a website name like www.microsoft.com be allowed as a username @ another website like that?
How, exactly would you enforce outlawing it?
Beyond that practicality, while I've never seen the use of @ in web addresses, I will say that I wouldn't want potentially "deceptive" email addresses outlawed.
That's because whenever a web site wants my address I give it its domain-name.tld@my-domain-name.tld. That's how I figure out who's misusing the address I gave them (few do) and how I automatically sort incoming email.
The differences between the chimp's genetic code and ours should reveal what makes us human...
The difference is we have a complex of genes in the form of a monolith.
But attempt no landing there.
The public has no idea what a email blacklist is, or why they're important for fighting spammers.
As a member of the public, I want you to know that I am offended by your use of the term "blacklist".
It is offensive to all African-Americans and other People of Color. Why must "black" always be equated with "bad", when exploitative White male colonizers are the source of all evil in the world?
You might as well perpetuate the culture of oppression by referring to some disk drives as "Master", and some as "Slave".
I will petition the Los Angeles City Council to ban the use of these "blacklists" altogether!
I urge my fellow easily offended perpetually victimized knee-jerk progressives to join me in this vitally important crusade.
What bugs me is that they also keep trying to get me to install Windows Media Player 9
What is the latest "safe" version of Windows Media Player, anyway? I've kept with 6.4 for fear of privacy/DRM problems with later versions.
Should I upgrade?
How do protable MP# [portable MP3] players do for recording?
The Archos Recorder models (Recorder & FM Recorder), as their names suggest record to MP3 format (not uncompressed), using either the Archos firmware or the far superior Rockbox (GPL'd replacement software).
The Archos models can record from line-in or from the built-in microphone (although this means quite a bit of noise when the hard drive spins up); the FM model can also record from the radio.