In this case it was about some obscenities, but what's to say this couldn't have been about say, late-term abortion, or gay rights?
If you're not prepared to be called out by your boss/wife/kids for the controversial opinions you find yourself venting "anonymously" on the Internet, don't vent on the net. Save it for the local pub, or the diary you keep under your pillow. If everybody put their money and their reputation where there mouths were, civilization might just lurch forward a little bit.
The point is that the guy worked for the public school system. Your boss may be fine with the notion that you are posting vulgarities on the Internet, but I'll guess that the fired worker knew in advance that his boss would not be, but he did it anyway -- on company gear, no less! Don't fire him over freedom-of-speech issues, just fire him cuz he's not all that bright, either way, he's out.
In America at least, you cannot be arrested for saying something stupid or even treasonous on the Internet. But that's it. That is the sum total of your protection. You can't be arrested, that's all there is to it. You CAN lose your job, lose any prospect for meaningful employment, lose your wife, lose the respect of your family, friends, and co-workers.
Never write anything anywhere on the Internet, "anonymously" or not, that you would not want your wife, boss, friends, or children to read. Period. It's not difficult to understand, yet we continually find ourselves trying to defend these losers as if they are some kind of free speech champions. They're not martyrs, they're morons. Giving these guys an Anonymous Login is like giving them a bottle of Tequila. Sure, it's their right, but you hope they have enough self-awareness to know how stupid and ugly they appear after they indulge.
If I'm the principal of the school whose employee is using school assets to post sexual vulgarities on the Web, my job is in danger. I'm one flash mob away from being the lead story on the local evening news or the O'Reilly Report, and no amount of union tenure is going to save my ass, or the asses of my family whose mouths I'm charged to feed.
Once the activity became public knowledge, there is only one way this could end.
Should this Kurt guy have blown the whistle, or kept his mouth shut? Dunno. Depends on how you feel about whistle-blowers. Maybe he has kids in that school...
Don't think that the company president who "didn't know he was using pirated software" won't serve you up as the sacrificial lamb to the Powers That Be in a heartbeat when some disgruntled ex-employee rats to the BSA. At that point, you'll be out of a job the hard way, with the kind of black stain on a record that no young IT guy wants to have.
This type of speech is SPECIFICALLY what the first amendment was written and added to the constitution to protect!
No it wasn't. There is nothing about the First Amendment protecting *anonymous* speech.
Remember that when the amendment was written, it was not uncommon for governments to jail individuals for speaking against them, simply because they could. What the forefathers were saying was, "It won't be against the law to speak out against the government in America. Say whatever you want about your elected officials, we won't throw you in jail or prosecute you in any way." This was written SPECIFICALLY for the guys standing up on soapboxes, shaking their fists in the town square. I'm pretty sure Thomas Jefferson would deliver the back of his hand to any punk trying to hide behind the First Amendment to bully a child anonymously.
One person's "harrassment" might be someone else's "fighting the system."
A fifteen year-old child is not part of The System, so this is clearly harassment. There are different standards for public discourse against celebrities/politicians and private citizens/minors, as there should be.
And in no circumstance does "Freedom of Speech" equate to "Freedom of Anonymous Speech." Don't be lulled into a false sense of security by the proliferance of User IDs in lieu of real names. The day is coming when the US Government will subpoena the logs and UID databases of Slashdot, and at that time Slashdot's owners will fold in like an origami swan.
Once the government is paying for your health care, they can pretty much mandate what you eat, what you smoke, what you drink, how long you live, etc. Hey, the repercussions of "bad" behavior are on their nickel, right? Government-sponsored health care pretty much covers control of the individual. The next step -- control of the corporation -- is accomplished through cap-and-trade and other such "green" and "environmental protection" legislation.
The problem is, it was supposed to be different in America. The government here was never supposed to be an entity apart from "We the People." We are, BY DESIGN, "not like the rest of the world." That is changing now, in leaps and bounds.
If the government said, "Y'know, we'd like to exert more control over the blogosphere, over all electronic media, really: restrict what is said, know the identities of who is saying it, get a firm handle on who is on the mailing lists of Markos Moulitsas and Rush Limbaugh... whaddya say, citizens, can we do that?" the answer would be a resounding, "Over Our Dead Body."
The "kids" thing is the spoonful of sugar that makes the tyranny go down...
It's funny how the media can be "outraged" about killing civilians
The "media" is hardly involved. These are game journalism sites, written by guys in their pajamas who are paid in schwag. The vast majority of people who consider themselves gamers don't even read these things.
they should just shut down every corporate owned "news" studio,
Right, I was just thinking how if we all got our news from Michelle Malkin and the Huffington Post, modern life would be so much better.
it would solve most of societies ills.
Will it make us better spellers? Then, sign me up!
The submitter, msevior, is one of the Abiword devs, long-term.
I used Abiword several years back. I think I used every linux word processor ever made for a while several years back. Finally settled with Open's. Think it was because of compatibility issues with the rest of the world (the Real one, the one I live in) who used MS, I honestly can't recall. Has Abiword gotten better in that regard? I do know that I'm a bit too far down the road with Open, which has garnered a satisfying momentum and robustness in its own right, to switch now. Unless Abiword is a helluva lot less expensive than Open. Oh yeah, they're both free. Never mind.
People who hate on gays don't want to be seen as horrible people
Careful, there's a baby in that bathwater.
People who are opposed to same-sex marriage don't necessarily "hate on gays." They're just... opposed to same-sex marriage. In fact, it's this broad-stroke-painted stereotype of everyone who opposes gay marriage as no-necked, knuckle-dragging, fag-bashing, Republican-voting, Judy-Garland-hating neanderthals that the peeps who voted for this in Washington state are trying to avoid getting tarred with. Their opposition has done a real good job of perpetuating that stereotype, and it's no more valid than the one of gays as all being lisping, limp-wristed nancy boys.
You want to know the biggest block of demographic opposition to gay marriage? Blacks and Latinos, particularly Mexican immigrants. And you wonder why Obama has back-burnered GLBT issues now that he's been elected...
...and after reading that summary -- a good chunk of it anyway, the coherent, least pretentious parts -- I'll be happy never to see anything about the site or him posted here again. This is the stuff which gives geeks and nerds a bad name, even among geeks and nerds. Christ Almighty, makes me want to go outside and toss around a football while tivo'ing American Idol.
I believe that Apple wants to control -- to "curate" -- the new experience of the LP while it is in its nascent stage of marketing. They want to sell these things, they want to convince people they are worth buying, and to accomplish that they cannot let the floodgates open for every garage band to participate before some kind of clear quality benchmarks are established.
Let's face it: There is a lot of great Open Source software. Open Source design? Not so much...
It goes like this... a buddy of mine was going to Cornell at the time, which as you may know is a stone's throw from Ithaca College... It was a dark and stormy night... quite literally... my friend is driving back to campus and sees this one lone guy, trenchcoat, hat pulled down, making his way through the pouring rain... small college town, he does what any decent person would do, he pulls over to see if he can give the guy a lift... by now you know that guy is Rod Serling... my buddy pulls the window down, and Serling smiles and says something like, "You've just crossed over!"
Apparently, Rod Serling used to do "the hitchhiker bit" ALL THE TIME around Cornell -- he got a big kick out of the expressions on the good samaritan's faces when they realized who they had just picked up...
As an EU citizen I'm happy and even surprised to see this happening - US actually caring about other people too and giving some control to people elsewhere.
Obama is a realist. He knows that he's got to give up some control over the international ventures if he's going to expand his micro-management of every fuckin' US citizen's personal life.
Nowadays, there too many jocks passing themselves off as "Gamers"
Huh? Aren't games based on pro sports among the most popular/best-selling video game categories? Would it not stand to reason that the more detailed and realistic these games become, the more interest they will hold for people who play the games in real life?
And come on, let's face it... what does it take, really, to "pass oneself off as a gamer"? Videogames -- and especially casual video games -- have become a multi-billion dollar industry. It's not like it's 1978 and you're meeting in your friend's basement to toss around 20-sided dice; entire Hollywood movie franchises are being built around videogame characters. Face it -- it ain't geekery anymore, it's mainstream... just like pro sports.
But a nerd trying to pass himself off as a jock... Now, That's Entertainment!
Slashdot Mirror
In this case it was about some obscenities, but what's to say this couldn't have been about say, late-term abortion, or gay rights?
If you're not prepared to be called out by your boss/wife/kids for the controversial opinions you find yourself venting "anonymously" on the Internet, don't vent on the net. Save it for the local pub, or the diary you keep under your pillow. If everybody put their money and their reputation where there mouths were, civilization might just lurch forward a little bit.
The point is that the guy worked for the public school system. Your boss may be fine with the notion that you are posting vulgarities on the Internet, but I'll guess that the fired worker knew in advance that his boss would not be, but he did it anyway -- on company gear, no less! Don't fire him over freedom-of-speech issues, just fire him cuz he's not all that bright, either way, he's out.
You are anonymous right now
Don't I wish!
In case I wasn't being clear enough, I would like your name/address/bank account number/phone number/social security number please.
You're still not being clear. What point are you trying to make?
In America at least, you cannot be arrested for saying something stupid or even treasonous on the Internet. But that's it. That is the sum total of your protection. You can't be arrested, that's all there is to it. You CAN lose your job, lose any prospect for meaningful employment, lose your wife, lose the respect of your family, friends, and co-workers.
Never write anything anywhere on the Internet, "anonymously" or not, that you would not want your wife, boss, friends, or children to read. Period. It's not difficult to understand, yet we continually find ourselves trying to defend these losers as if they are some kind of free speech champions. They're not martyrs, they're morons. Giving these guys an Anonymous Login is like giving them a bottle of Tequila. Sure, it's their right, but you hope they have enough self-awareness to know how stupid and ugly they appear after they indulge.
If I'm the principal of the school whose employee is using school assets to post sexual vulgarities on the Web, my job is in danger. I'm one flash mob away from being the lead story on the local evening news or the O'Reilly Report, and no amount of union tenure is going to save my ass, or the asses of my family whose mouths I'm charged to feed.
Once the activity became public knowledge, there is only one way this could end.
Should this Kurt guy have blown the whistle, or kept his mouth shut? Dunno. Depends on how you feel about whistle-blowers. Maybe he has kids in that school...
You should try and rediscover that spirit and turf out the current lot of people trying to control your lives.
We try. And then we're called "racist." [sigh] It ain't easy...
Don't think that the company president who "didn't know he was using pirated software" won't serve you up as the sacrificial lamb to the Powers That Be in a heartbeat when some disgruntled ex-employee rats to the BSA. At that point, you'll be out of a job the hard way, with the kind of black stain on a record that no young IT guy wants to have.
This type of speech is SPECIFICALLY what the first amendment was written and added to the constitution to protect!
No it wasn't. There is nothing about the First Amendment protecting *anonymous* speech.
Remember that when the amendment was written, it was not uncommon for governments to jail individuals for speaking against them, simply because they could. What the forefathers were saying was, "It won't be against the law to speak out against the government in America. Say whatever you want about your elected officials, we won't throw you in jail or prosecute you in any way." This was written SPECIFICALLY for the guys standing up on soapboxes, shaking their fists in the town square. I'm pretty sure Thomas Jefferson would deliver the back of his hand to any punk trying to hide behind the First Amendment to bully a child anonymously.
One person's "harrassment" might be someone else's "fighting the system."
A fifteen year-old child is not part of The System, so this is clearly harassment. There are different standards for public discourse against celebrities/politicians and private citizens/minors, as there should be.
And in no circumstance does "Freedom of Speech" equate to "Freedom of Anonymous Speech." Don't be lulled into a false sense of security by the proliferance of User IDs in lieu of real names. The day is coming when the US Government will subpoena the logs and UID databases of Slashdot, and at that time Slashdot's owners will fold in like an origami swan.
Once the government is paying for your health care, they can pretty much mandate what you eat, what you smoke, what you drink, how long you live, etc. Hey, the repercussions of "bad" behavior are on their nickel, right? Government-sponsored health care pretty much covers control of the individual. The next step -- control of the corporation -- is accomplished through cap-and-trade and other such "green" and "environmental protection" legislation.
The problem is, it was supposed to be different in America. The government here was never supposed to be an entity apart from "We the People." We are, BY DESIGN, "not like the rest of the world." That is changing now, in leaps and bounds.
If we start calling them "babies," then we won't be able to murder them by the millions, guiltlessly.
C'mon, people, get a clue...
If the government said, "Y'know, we'd like to exert more control over the blogosphere, over all electronic media, really: restrict what is said, know the identities of who is saying it, get a firm handle on who is on the mailing lists of Markos Moulitsas and Rush Limbaugh... whaddya say, citizens, can we do that?" the answer would be a resounding, "Over Our Dead Body."
The "kids" thing is the spoonful of sugar that makes the tyranny go down...
It's funny how the media can be "outraged" about killing civilians
The "media" is hardly involved. These are game journalism sites, written by guys in their pajamas who are paid in schwag. The vast majority of people who consider themselves gamers don't even read these things.
they should just shut down every corporate owned "news" studio,
Right, I was just thinking how if we all got our news from Michelle Malkin and the Huffington Post, modern life would be so much better.
it would solve most of societies ills.
Will it make us better spellers? Then, sign me up!
The submitter, msevior, is one of the Abiword devs, long-term.
I used Abiword several years back. I think I used every linux word processor ever made for a while several years back. Finally settled with Open's. Think it was because of compatibility issues with the rest of the world (the Real one, the one I live in) who used MS, I honestly can't recall. Has Abiword gotten better in that regard? I do know that I'm a bit too far down the road with Open, which has garnered a satisfying momentum and robustness in its own right, to switch now. Unless Abiword is a helluva lot less expensive than Open. Oh yeah, they're both free. Never mind.
If it was Latveria, it'd probably be a precursor to Clobbering Time.
People who hate on gays don't want to be seen as horrible people
Careful, there's a baby in that bathwater.
People who are opposed to same-sex marriage don't necessarily "hate on gays." They're just... opposed to same-sex marriage. In fact, it's this broad-stroke-painted stereotype of everyone who opposes gay marriage as no-necked, knuckle-dragging, fag-bashing, Republican-voting, Judy-Garland-hating neanderthals that the peeps who voted for this in Washington state are trying to avoid getting tarred with. Their opposition has done a real good job of perpetuating that stereotype, and it's no more valid than the one of gays as all being lisping, limp-wristed nancy boys.
You want to know the biggest block of demographic opposition to gay marriage? Blacks and Latinos, particularly Mexican immigrants. And you wonder why Obama has back-burnered GLBT issues now that he's been elected...
No. It should be up to society
No. It should be up to the customer. The alternative breeds what we call a "Nanny State." That's a Bad Thing.
...and after reading that summary -- a good chunk of it anyway, the coherent, least pretentious parts -- I'll be happy never to see anything about the site or him posted here again. This is the stuff which gives geeks and nerds a bad name, even among geeks and nerds. Christ Almighty, makes me want to go outside and toss around a football while tivo'ing American Idol.
They need to stop calling it a black hole or the ignorant masses will decide it's going to end the world.
In the current uber-politically correct climate, they're more likely to lose their funding after being accused of racism.
so in the end we are right back at apple wanting to deliver that special fairy dust experience that only "they" can deliver...
Companies underestimate the disposable income of discriminating fairies at their own peril.
I believe that Apple wants to control -- to "curate" -- the new experience of the LP while it is in its nascent stage of marketing. They want to sell these things, they want to convince people they are worth buying, and to accomplish that they cannot let the floodgates open for every garage band to participate before some kind of clear quality benchmarks are established.
Let's face it: There is a lot of great Open Source software. Open Source design? Not so much...
It goes like this... a buddy of mine was going to Cornell at the time, which as you may know is a stone's throw from Ithaca College... It was a dark and stormy night... quite literally... my friend is driving back to campus and sees this one lone guy, trenchcoat, hat pulled down, making his way through the pouring rain... small college town, he does what any decent person would do, he pulls over to see if he can give the guy a lift... by now you know that guy is Rod Serling... my buddy pulls the window down, and Serling smiles and says something like, "You've just crossed over!"
Apparently, Rod Serling used to do "the hitchhiker bit" ALL THE TIME around Cornell -- he got a big kick out of the expressions on the good samaritan's faces when they realized who they had just picked up...
As an EU citizen I'm happy and even surprised to see this happening - US actually caring about other people too and giving some control to people elsewhere.
Obama is a realist. He knows that he's got to give up some control over the international ventures if he's going to expand his micro-management of every fuckin' US citizen's personal life.
Nowadays, there too many jocks passing themselves off as "Gamers"
Huh? Aren't games based on pro sports among the most popular/best-selling video game categories? Would it not stand to reason that the more detailed and realistic these games become, the more interest they will hold for people who play the games in real life?
And come on, let's face it... what does it take, really, to "pass oneself off as a gamer"? Videogames -- and especially casual video games -- have become a multi-billion dollar industry. It's not like it's 1978 and you're meeting in your friend's basement to toss around 20-sided dice; entire Hollywood movie franchises are being built around videogame characters. Face it -- it ain't geekery anymore, it's mainstream... just like pro sports.
But a nerd trying to pass himself off as a jock... Now, That's Entertainment!